


New Spark

by KittyDemon9000



Category: Transformers Animated (2007)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Allspark magic, Amnesia, Elita 1 lives, Giant Spiders, Manipulation, OC insert, Optimus gets a kid, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sentinel isn't an aft, Spiders, and he deserves it, because I said so, like i mean HUGE
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-03
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:00:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 32,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22095253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KittyDemon9000/pseuds/KittyDemon9000
Summary: Optimus Prime, Sentinel, and Elita had another member of their trio. A femme named Nightlight. But, the incident that followed was different. She became.....younger?And when Optimus is assigned to a space bridge repair team, she stows away, claiming it was the doing of another. What is happening to Nightlight, and what will her presence do to affect the team?
Relationships: Elita One/Optimus Prime/Sentinel Prime
Comments: 35
Kudos: 20





	1. Adventure

“Isn’t it beautiful…..” Elita-1 said, gazing up at the strange, purplish ...thing. They were mostly see-through, but in the light of the sun, they sparkled like new metal. The odd things linked from rock spire to rock spire, waving back and forth in the wind.

“Yeah…” Optimus agreed. “But, what is it?”

“I have no idea,” I added. Archa-7 was such an amazing place, with its strange purple things and rock spires that reached as high as skyscrapers. Another amazing thing was the silence. On Cybertron, no matter where I was, there was noise, be it the hustle and bustle of the mecha or the gentle hum of machinery. Here, the only thing that disturbed the silence was the wind. If it wasn’t so peaceful, it’d be eerie.

“Optimus, Elita-1, Nightlight, get you fan belts in gear,” Sentinel yelled. Well, there goes the silence. The three of us turned around to see him flexing by the ship. I lightly rolled my optics at the sight. Sentinel apparently only knew how to enter dramatically.

“Sentinel, have you ever stopped to wonder why organic planets are off-limits to Autobots?” Optimus asked. Of course, Optimus would be the one to bring it up. He always did go by the book. Sentinel just let out a chuckle and wrapped his servos around the three of us.

“You’re not getting cold landing pads, are you Optimus old buddy.” Sentinel poked, but there no anger behind the statement. My time with Sentinel has given chances to learn his social cues, and by the way his optic ridge was lifted and his derma quirked up, he was imposing a playful challenge.

“Aren’t you the least bit curious to see a real Decepticon ship? We’ll be history!” Elita said.

“And, who knows, maybe we could discover something new. I’ve always wanted to see an organic up close.” I added. It was no secret that I was fascinated by organics. Imagine being able to regrow a limb! Naturally! The very idea was amazing!

“Forget history and organics, think of the energon! Those bots hoarded this stuff. If we find that ship, we’re set for the rest of our lives.” Sentinel carefully unwrapped his servos from around Optimus and set his servo on mine and Elita’s shoulder struts, carefully steering us toward the pretty, clear things.

“Which we could be spending the rest of in the Cyber Stockade if we’re caught.” Optimus tried to reason. As much as I hated to admit it, Optimus had a point. Being on organic planets was very illegal. Not much reason was given, but that just made me all the more curious.

“Alright, fine. We get it if you're too scared.” Sentinel taunted again. Optimus let out a long exvent before heading after us.

“Someone’s gotta keep you walking malfunctions from getting in over your helms,” he said.

“We never get in over our helms,” Sentinel countered. Not even a second later, the ground around us started cracking and gave way.

In an instant, we were falling and all too soon we hit the ground, flat on our backs. I let out a hiss of pain as I felt something prick me in the back of my neck. I got up and turned around to look at what I’d fallen on, only to see a tiny organic. The only word to describe it would be ...round. Its edges were much more curved than any living thing I’d ever seen. It had eight ped-looking appendages and a small pair of pincers, most likely what hurt me. In a flash, it disappeared into the ground, leaving no trace that it had even been there. The pain was quickly numbing, but it still throbbed slightly.

“What?” Sentinel asked. Optimus must’ve given him The Look™. The four of us slowly got up, Optimus looking straight at the hole we fell through. We were in a massive cavern, even by Cybertronian standards. The ground below felt worn, so we probably weren’t alone.

A hissing click echoed across the walls. Yep, not alone.

“You guys heard that, right?” I asked. The others nodded slightly. The noise sounded again, this time much louder.

“Sounds like it came down that tunnel.” Optimus pointed out. The tunnel that the noise was coming from was huge, full of stalagmites and stalactites.

“Nightlight, would you be so kind,” Optimus asked me. I gave a small nod and activated my sigma, filling the tunnel with a soft, white glow. There were more of the clear things down here, mostly hanging from the ceiling, some of them with rocks and dust collected. Our ped steps echoed quite loudly in the quiet.

As we continued walking down the tunnels, the clear things became more and more common, sometimes getting thicker. It wouldn’t hurt so take one sample...right?

“Sentinel, could you lift me? I want to get a sample.” I asked, pulling out a small vial and scalpel from my subspace. Rule #1 of going to new places in the science division: Always collect samples. He gave a small smirk.

“Oh, come on. It’s not like their made of energon.” he joked. I rolled my optics. Slightly to my surprise, he kneeled onto one knee and put his servos together, creating a small step ladder.

I smiled and climbed up, finally getting a closer look at the things. They appeared to be made of a thin, almost opaque strands. I reached forward with my scalpel to scrape some off, only to find that it was very delicate and quite sticky, clinging to the tool. Fascinating. 

Once I scrapped it in the vial, I sub spaced it away and hopped down from Sentinel. I patted him on the back in thanks before we continued down the cave. As we walked further, I noticed a puddle of purplish liquid, a similar shade to the hanging things on the roof of the cave...I need a better name than “Hanging Things.” 

“Look at that. That’s not energon either.” I knelt to examine the puddle, studying it as best I could without touching it. Oh, what I would give to have brought my Chemical Analysis Kit with me! Then, I’d be able to do a chemical scan of it. Though it probably would have delayed our trip an extra cycle, and we probably wouldn’t have made it off-planet without getting caught. 

“I wouldn’t touch it if I were you.” Optimus stood a few feet back, eyeing the puddle warily. “Remember those stories Kup used to tell about organics with acid skin that could fry your plating off?”

“Don’t tell me you believe those,” Sentinel sneered. I chuckled slightly, pulling out another vial. “Those stories are meant to scare protoforms. None of it’s real. Anyway, why are we wasting time looking at puddles when we should be tracking down energon?” 

I rolled my optics at him as I dipped the vial into the puddle. It was quite shallow, but some of the liquid still went inside. “Fine, fine. Killjoy. What if this is a new scientific discovery and you brushed it off because you were too busy yelling about energon?”

Sentinel snorted. “This little expedition was supposed to find the greatest stash of energon ever recorded, remember? Then I can finally rub something in Joltcircut’s faceplates.” He muttered the last part to himself, but the echo of the cave allowed me to hear it. It was no secret to anyone that Sentinel and Joltcircut hated each other. No one knew why, but Sentinel was always trying to one-up him and vice versa. The main difference between the two was that while Sentinel could be an aft, he knew boundaries. Joltcircut, however, did not.

I quickly pulled out my mesh towel, wiping down the side of the vial that had touched the liquid and subspaced it away. Elita offered me her servo, pulling me back to my peds. “Fine, we’ll go look for a Decepticon ship instead of the mysterious organic substance that could be the discovery of the century, because you have a one-track processor. Wasn’t this supposed to be a dry planet?" 

Three ominous passages loomed up ahead, branching off from the primary tunnel we had been following. All of them seemed to look almost exactly alike; dark, slightly damp, with the Hanging things(still needed a better name) covering the ceiling. So far, other than that organic that I landed on, there had been no clear signs of life.

I shivered with excitement. An abandoned organic planet with completely new substances not recorded in any of the existing datalogs? Discovery of the century was an understatement, this could change my career for the rest of my runtime! It was almost enough to make me forget the slowly growing throbbing on the back of my neck. The keyword being almost.

“Yeah, it was supposed to be, but it’s organic. Who knows what “dry planet” means in a place like this?” Optimus stopped and folded his servos across his chassis, staring up at the new passages. “I don’t like this. We should be trying to find our way back to the surface, and it looks like these all go deeper. This isn’t a good idea.”

Sentinel groaned and dramatically slammed his fore-helm into his palm, the clang echoing down the tunnel. “Shh!” I hissed. It was a deserted planet, but somehow, I felt as if loud noises were a bad idea.

“You’re shushing me? Really? Come on. This isn’t the Iacon Library.”

“Have you ever even been to the Iacon Library?” Optimus grinned at Sentinel, who rolled his optics at the response.

“No, Optimus, because I’m not a complete nerd. Come on, let’s get going. Pick a tunnel.”

“Wait a minute. Shh, listen.” Elita said, ignoring Sentinel’s groan and standing very still. I turned up my audials, trying to hear what she heard. It was a faint scratching like something rubbing or crawling along the stone walls. 

“Do you hear that?” I whispered.

“No-” Optimus paused. “Wait. Yeah, I think so. What is that?”

“Probably nothing. Let’s get moving.” Sentinel interrupted. Just as he said that my Sigma went out, and a loud, very high pitched shriek occurred and I felt a slight pressure on my back. A few seconds later, Optimus and Elita-1 activated their chassis lights, giving us sight once again. When they looked at me, Optimus raised a servo to cover his smirk, while Elita was trying(and failing) to contain her laughter. I turned my helm slightly to see Sentinel cowering behind me, even though I was smaller than him. The instant he noticed we were looking at him, he jumped back with a start and not making optic contact with any of us.

“Did….did you just scream like a youngling femme…” I jokingly asked, but he gave a small scowl at all of us.

“Not. A. Word,” he spoke, silently glaring at a rock. I chuckled slightly before trying to reactivate my Sigma, only to find it offline and the pain in my neck spreading to small tingles in my servos. I ran a diagnostic scan through my frame, but nothing came up. Must be a glitch or something.

“Well, it looks like you guys will have to light the way from here. My sigma must be malfunctioning, I can’t seem to reactivate it.” I said. Slight concern appeared on Optimus and Elita’s faceplates, but we kept going.

Without my Sigma, the caver seemed much darker and the shadows seemed to creep upon us. In my peripheral vision, one of the shadows, larger than any Autobot I’ve ever seen, moved. I doubled back on it, only to see nothing there. It’s fine, probably just my imagination. As we continued down the tunnel, the feeling of being followed started creeping up on my processor.

“I got a good feeling about this.” Sentinel started saying, completely contradicting how I felt. “Any cycle now we’re gonna be overflowing with rich, Allspark-infused energon-y goodness.”

I chuckled. “Did you just say ‘energon-y goodness’?” But Optimus shushed me.

“Sh, sh. I think I hear something,” he said. Now that we stopped talking, the unmistakable sound of movement was close. We circled up, our backs to each other.

“Over here!” Elita said, but by the time we looked, it was gone. The chirping-clicks were much louder, surrounding us.

“Where’s it coming from?” Optimus asked aloud.

“That way!” Sentinel interjected.

“No, over here!” I yelled. Just as everyone turned, a giant organic fell from the ceiling.

It was larger than any living thing I’d seen before, eight long, spindly appendages coming from its body, functioning as peds. It had five, glowing, purple optics and two massive pincers that could cut me in half. It very much resembled the organic I had fallen on earlier, just, you know, insanely huge.

The organic let out a hiss before shooting something from its intake. “Look out!” I shouted, diving off to the side. Elita wasn’t so lucky, as the projectile hit her, knocking her into the cave wall and wrapping around her. I rushed to her side as Optimus sprayed foam into the organic's optics, causing it to cry out in pain.

With my scalpel, I cut away the projectile while Sentinel provided cover with his Sigma, only to find that it was the same substance that was hanging from the cavern walls. So it was created by these organics. 

“I take it back, this stuff isn’t so beautiful,” Elita said as she flicked the remains off her frame. Her optics suddenly widened. “BEHIND YOU!” 

I turned around just in time to see another organic, headed straight for Sentinel. I shoved him to the side, pushing him out of harm’s way. The organic’s pincers pierced my armor and protoform, pumping something through my systems. I couldn’t stop the yell that escaped from me. The throbbing in my frame amplified ten-fold, rendering me practically immobile. It felt like fire was making its way through each of my circuits, not stopping until everything was under its control. Just when I thought it was over, three more dropped from the ceiling, firing projectiles at my teammates, sticking them to the walls. There were now five giant organics in the room, all of us immobile.

The organic didn’t drop me, however, nor did it attack. Instead, the first organic walked over to me and took me in its pincers. I thought I was safe until it then bit down. Hard.

A scream of agony escaped me again, but this time I could hear my teammates yelling, trying to get to me. The pain increased again as more substance was forced into my systems until I was passed to one of the newer organics. It did the same thing until I was passed to the next organic. At this point, I was delirious with pain, and the world felt too bright, the noises were too loud and the organics back felt very soft.

Wait. The organics back? When did I get here? My friends' calls had faded away, so maybe the organics were carrying me somewhere? But, why me? And what did they want from me?

A sinking feeling in my tank told that they didn’t want to talk about their abilities.


	2. Gone Wrong

The giant organics kept walking, going deeper into the cave systems. I still couldn’t move, giving me more unrest. The pain had mostly faded, but I couldn’t feel my frame. 

Focus, Nightlight. The others will come for you when they get free. Remain calm. I decided to observe my surroundings, something to keep my processor busy.

The organics' back was very soft and gave a sort of strange comfort. I knew that these creatures could hurt me(well, they already kind of _did_ ), but I, for some reason, knew that they wouldn’t, almost like….. NOPE! Not going there. Think of your surroundings, not the past. The past is the past. The past is gone. The past is forgotten.

There was faint glowing coming from all around me, but I couldn’t tell what it was coming from due to my position. More chirping-clicks sounded, but much louder. Instead of muffled pedsteps on rock, they were loud and vibrating. At some point, we must have started walking on metal. 

The Decepticon ship. So it was real. And the purple glow is probably from the energon. I slightly chuckled to myself. So this wasn’t a wild turbo-fox chase

I could feel myself drifting on the edge of recharge as the walk continued, but something kept me awake. A feeling in my spark, a nervousness that I only felt twice, once where I was visited by the head of the Science Division, Perceptor, himself(long story short, I’m no longer allowed to experiment with volatile substances) and the other...

The past is the past. The past is gone. The past is forgotten.

The organic stopped with a start, almost causing me to fall off in the process. I let out a small yelp, trying to grab onto it for balance, but my movements were slow and uncoordinated, so I fell. But I didn’t hit the floor. Instead, one of the other organics grabbed me by my waist, seeming to be careful enough to not aggravate the previous wounds slightly higher up. It walked forward, before setting me down in a small, berth-like cushion made of the stuff they spat. But, it wasn’t sticky, far from it. If anything, it seemed to bend to cradle my frame.

Then, it appeared. It was an organic ...I think. It was huge, at least three times bigger than the organics that brought me here, and much _much_ bigger than any living thing should be. It had a similar body type to the other organics, only it had a more regal look to it. Instead of just black coloring, it had gold and purple stripes running along its helm, back and peds, adding to the royal look. The organics around us kneeled, in a sort of awkward bow.

This was their queen.

I couldn’t help but feel afraid. Here I was, immobilized and weak, at the mercy of a creature much bigger than I was. Just like  _ him _ . It bent down toward me, its massive helm mere inches from my own. I let out a small whimper of fear. Suddenly, the organic let out a series of clicks and hisses, and tiny organics erupted from the berth I was on, each one wiggling into my plating.

It felt _wrong_. Feeling things touch wires that were never meant to be touched, circuits that should have never been moved, gears that rarely activated. My frame started shaking, trying to rid itself of the invasion. I could feel the small organics nipping and poking, each one sending small substances into me. I felt like I was going to purge.

Then, it stopped. The wriggling feeling stopped. The pokes and bites ceased. I calmed down with an exvent, relaxing my frame. I don’t know when or how, but the tiny organics retreated back into the berth as if they were never there in the first place. 

More surprises occur when the queen organic came back into view, an energon cube in its intake. It was almost as if it wanted me to drink it. It did, in fact, want me to drink, because not even a second later, the organic lifted to cube to my derma and tipped it up, spilling the contents into my intake, keeping its optics locked with my own.

I choked at first, but the organic seemed determined to get me to drink, so I swallowed reluctantly. It tasted like regular energon, just older. There was also another taste, but I couldn’t discern what it was. 

Come to think of it, what even are these things? Were there others or was this a unique species?.....What even am I? The world around me became laced with a haze.

“ _You are one of us. You are our chosen. You are our future._ ” a strange voice spoke. It was full of hisses and clicks, but I could make words out of them. 

“Who ...Why.” I was able to say.

“ _I am your queen. You are our champion. You are our future. You are hurt. I will help you heal._ ” my “Queen,” said again, repeating some phrases from the first time. 

But, how could I be the same species? And what did it mean to be their champion? How could I be their future if I didn’t even know what they were?

“‘LIGHT!” a voice yelled. My queen pulled back quickly, spilling energon down my front. A blue, metal creature jumped in between me and my queen, creating a glowing blue item to make a barrier. 

“Optimus! NOW!” the blue one yelled. Another metal creature, this one also blue with some red, scooped me up from behind.

“Nightlight, are you okay?” it asked.

“What ...creature…metal…...what ...who….” I tried speaking, but my words were coming out slurred. My thoughts become foggier, stopping most of them before they began.

“SENTINEL, ELITA! NIGHTLIGHT NEEDS MEDICAL ATTENTION NOW!” it yelled, breaking into a sprint. I was rocked in its big servos before it shifted me into a single servo to it could fire something at the ceiling.

The world around me became more fuzz, but just before I drifted into unconsciousness, I felt a familiar crawling feeling in my subspace

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry folks. You'll be getting a character description during next chapter. Just sit tight.


	3. New Sparked

The world came back slowly, first the sounds, then the feelings, then sight. The sounds were faint beeping noises, along with even fainter pedsteps. The smells were medical-grade energon, along with something sweet that I couldn’t identify. The sights, though, were by far the most confusing.

I was lying on a medical berth, but I wasn’t sure how I knew that. The room was a very pale blue, almost white. In three chairs, two on one side, one on the other, were three of the strangest creatures I’d ever seen before.

The one to my right appeared to be a metal creature that had a red chassis and blue servos and peds. There was a serious-looking red face on his shoulder, but it appeared to be painted. The two to my left looked very different but were also made of metal. The smaller and further away of the two had yellow and black armor, with a green base underneath. Around their neck was the same red face as the first one. She also appeared to be a femme. The biggest of the three was mostly dark blue with some orange and light gray highlights, and his red face was on his chassis. All three of them were in recharge, but the blue and orange one had a servo on my berth, almost touching my servo.

“Hi,” I said aloud. All three of them jumped up with a start, the yellow and green one going as far as making her servos glow green. The noise hurt my audials, but she quickly turned them off, seeing no danger. I don’t know why, especially given their immediate reactions, but these bots made me feel ...safe. Protected, even.

“Nightlight, you’re okay.” the big blue one said, a look of pure relief on his face.

“Nightlight…,” I spoke, letting the syllables roll off my glossa. “Is that my designation?”

Those four words changed the atmosphere in an instant. The femme brought her servos to her intake in shock, the red one just looked really sad, and the big blue one just seemed angry. The red one took an ex-vent before speaking.

“Yes. Your designation is Nightlight. My designation is Optimus, and these two are Elita-1 and Sentinel.” he introduced. “We were close friends, but now I’m not so sure if you remember it.

I silently thought for a few seconds. 

“I don’t remember anything,” I said, making optic contact with them. “Every time I try to remember, it hurts…” That was very much true. It was a small burning sensation that gradually got hotter the harder I pushed.

“I’ll get the doctor,” Elita said, rushing out the door. Not even a klick later, a white and grey bot walked in, a small datapad and stylus in their servo, with Elita not far behind.

“Alright, out, all three of you. I need to run some tests and I don’t need others in the way,” he commanded. His voice was soft but firm. His command was immediately met with loud words. Too loud. I brought up my servos to cover my audials and closed my optics, trying to block the noise. To much surprise, it stopped a few seconds later. 

I opened one of my optics to see the four looking at me with varying degrees of concern. Optimus silently nodded, before grabbing the other two by their servos and gently leading them out of the room. The doctor let out a small ex-vent, then turned to me.

“My designation is Residue, I’ll be your doctor for the time being. I’m going to run some tests, and I’ll need you to answer as honestly as possible without hurting yourself, okay?” he asked, keeping his voice soft.

“Okay,” I answered, giving a slight nod.

“What is your designation?” he asked.

“Nightlight. Optimus told me.” I answered. He furrowed his optic ridges and made a note on the datapad he was carrying.

“What else did he tell you?” 

“That me, him, Sentinel and Elita-1 were friends. That’s kinda it.” I said. He let out another ex-vent, and his frame visibly relaxed. He then muttered something along the lines of “won’t change results too much” before continuing.

“Who was you tutor bot?” he asked. I gave him a blank look.

“What’s that?” I asked. Residue wrote something down on his datapad before asking another question.

“Who were your caretakers?” he tried. I didn’t respond, only giving him another look. “Your mentor? Your lab number? Your last experiment?” he tried, but I just gave him more confused looks. He let out a “hmmm” before he walked over to one of the machines, clicking a red button that seemed to turn it on. Interesting.

“I’m going to run a scan and I need you to stay as still as possible.” he requested. I nodded before holding still. As the green light ran over me, a warm tingle went through me. But, in the back of my spark, a small feeling woke. It felt like fear ...but it wasn’t. Residue looked at the screen on the machine, his optics widening.

He silently muttered something to himself, and his body language made me assume that whatever showed up was a bad thing. “I have to run this data down to the other doctors and your friends. I’ll be right back.” he quickly walked, practically ran, out the door, leaving me to my thoughts and surroundings.

My body was similar to those of the other metal giants, just smaller. If I stood up, I’d probably not even meet Elita’s knee. I seemed to have pitch-black armor, with very dark grey underneath, giving me a shadow-like look. But, why was I named Nightlight? If anything, I should've been named Shadow or Pitch. My digits looked very sharp, but when I felt them with my other servo, it felt like they had special pads on them. I reached down to my peds, only to find the same weird pads there too. I also felt something weird in my intake, and when I ran my glossa over it, I found tiny fangs. Hmmm, I need more information.

“ _ I can give you that. _ ” 

***

“So, can you tell us what’s wrong with ‘Light or not?” I asked, crossing my servos across my chassis. Optimus and Elita gave me a look, but their concern for Nightlight was more obvious.

“Well, yes and no,” he responded.

“What does that mean?” I demanded. He let out a small ex-vent before pulling up a picture. Now, I’m no genius like Nightlight, but I’m  _ pretty _ sure it was meant to be a processor. 

“This is an average, healthy processor. And this,” he pulled up another picture, but it was different. Some parts of it were red with error messages. “Is Nightlight’s processor. As you can see, we weren’t able to completely save her spark from all of the venom’s damage. It has severely damaged parts of it, specifically the parts that are connected to her processor. The parts that received the most damage are her hippocampus, which was the most damaged, along with her hypothalamus and frontal lobe.”

I gave him a very confused look. “I understood the first part, and about 5% of the second part,” I said. He let out an ex-vent, before repeating.

“She appears to have lost all her memories, and her personality and mentality have changed.” he bluntly stated. Optimus almost fell off his chair in surprise, which under normal circumstances would have been hilarious. Now, however, it was not.

“WHAT!” we all yelled.

“However, this information does clear up one question. Why did the protoform become a youngling?” he said, seeming to ignore our reactions. 

“Can we see her?” Optimus asked, practically a whisper. The doctor gave a nod, but his face was grim.

“I do want to warn you, however. You are no longer speaking to the Nightlight you knew before. You are now talking to a youngling who has no memories of anything or anyone and has woken up in a hospital. You’ll need to be gentle and extremely careful about what you tell her. I recommend withholding memories and stories with her in it, at least until she’s gotten her bearings. It is possible for her to regain  _ some _ of her memories back, but only through rest and recovery. And expect fluctuations in her mentality. Some days, she might act like her original age, and other days she’ll act like a sparkling. ”

The three of us gave a nod, before standing up and heading back to the room.

“How ...how different do you think she’ll be?” Elita asked. It was the question that we were all dreading. What if the doctors were wrong and the venom affected more than her processor? What if she wouldn’t want to see us? What ...what if she hated us?

No. That would never happen. Nightlight may not remember us, but she’s still our friend.

Optimus gently knocked on the door. “Nightlight, can we come in?”

“Sure!” a very enthusiastic voice sound. So far, so good. Optimus carefully opened the door to a very...interesting sight.

Nightlight was no longer on the berth. Instead, she was crouching near the medical scanner next to it. An array of wires and metal plating were scattered in the area around her, seeming to be organized by type. What worried me most was the number of electrical sparks coming from the machine.

I was by her side in an instant, carefully picking her up from the mess and careful to not step on anything. I now just realized how small she was. How small and  _ vulnerable _ she was. A single shock from the machine could badly damage her, or worse.

“Heyyyyyyy.” she started, clearly annoyed.

“You don't mess with that, it’s dangerous.” I gently set her back on the berth. She pouted, curling her derma. I had to suppress a laugh, knowing that it would only make her angrier. 

“So, why did you have to leave? Bit said that you were talking to the doctors about stuff,” she said, but I was slightly confused.

“Who’s ‘Bit’?” Elita asked. Had the doctors let someone else in here? Nightlight just smiled at my question before placing a servo over her subspace.

“She’s my friend who lived in my subspace, but she’s really shy and doesn’t like being outside,” she said, her smile as bright as Luna-1. It was quite adorable, seeing that she already had an imaginary friend.

Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.


	4. Surprises

_Two Stellar Cycles Later On the Orion_

Optimus let out a small huff as he melted into his command chair. Leading this team took a lot out of him, especially when Bumblebee decided it would be fun to prank Ratchet. But on top of that, it was boring. Flying to a space bridge, clearing away rubble, repeat. The most interesting thing that had happened had been stumbling across Prowl, and he made it quite clear that he was only here since he had no other choice.

It had only been a few cycles into the day and Optimus was already exhausted. How he missed his little Nightlight. At first, the change was hard, for all three of them. Instead of the calm, collected, Nightlight they knew, they had this boisterous sparkling(though, she still retained her unquenchable curiosity, that was familiar). They all felt some degree of guilt about the situation. But, over time, they all grew to love the new Nightlight like she was their own sparkling. 

She also seemed to have a positive effect on all three of them. Elita had finally decided what she wanted to be, a scientist, because Nightlight had roped her into many “experiments”(much to the hospital bots’ dismay). Sentinel became less prone to start shouting matches and brawls with Joltcircut, sometimes just ignoring him(not every time though). She even helped Optimus through his difficulty after being kicked out of the Academy, listening to him talk and always telling him not to give up.

It wouldn’t hurt to call her ...right? She was probably lonely in the hospital since Sentinel and Elita were both away on missions. Yeah, that’s why he’ll calling. Because Nightlight is probably lonely.

“This is Iacon Hospital, how may I help you.” the secretary bot appeared on the screen, a half-asleep expression on her face. Odd. Usually, his calls were answered directly by Nightlight(who had somehow figured out how to answer all on her own) or by a nurse.

“Hello, my designation is Optimus Prime. I’m calling to check up on a youngling in your care.” he formally said.

“Of course. Their designation and your relation?” he asked, looking at something offscreen, most likely another monitor.

“Nightlight,” Optimus answered immediately. “I’m one of her legal guardians.” The secretary snapped to attention, before getting a very worried look on his faceplates.

“No one’s told you?” she asked. A sinking feeling started forming in his tanks.

“Told me what?” Optimus cautiously asked.

“Nightlight went missing quite some time ago.” 

Oh. Oh no. OH NO. This was very bad. Optimus hung up from the call in an instant, not wanting the secretary to see his face. Nightlight was gone. Vanished. And they didn’t tell him. WHY DIDN’T THEY TELL HIM!

“aaaAAAHHHHHHHHH!” Bumblebee’s yelling interrupted his panicked thoughts, along with the sounds of metal crates falling.

Optimus let out an event before sitting up from his chair and making his way to where Bumblebee was. He wasn’t in the mood to deal with this, especially since he just found out his sparkling was missing, but he was the Prime of this ship. He could brood later.

The second Optimus turned the corner, a bright yellow blur crashed right into him, only to fall back on their skid plate.

“Bossbot!” Bumblebee squeaked, before standing up. “Something’s in the cargo bay! It jumped down from the ceiling, then scurried behind some crates! I didn’t get a good look at it, but it was mostly black. Now, C’MON!” He roughly grabbed Optimus’ servo before bolting in the direction of the cargo bay.

In that room, was the rest of the crew. Bulkhead was holding a massive empty crate, most likely to catch the creature, with Ratchet preparing to use his magnetic abilities to lift the creates the creature was hiding behind. Prowl was standing near the doorway, shurikens drawn in case it made a run for it.

“Sh!” Ratchet shushed. “We’ve got it cornered.” With a quick flick of his wrists, the boxes went flying in the air. For a split second, the shadowy creature was seen, before making a bee-line straight for Optimus.

Prowl threw his shurikens, Bumblebee shot his stingers and Bulkhead tried to throw some crates, but the creature dodged them with ease. It sprang upward, before colliding with Optimus’ chassis, it’s speed catching the Prime off guard and knocking him over. Optimus slammed his optics shut with the contact, preparing for some pain.

“Surprise!” the creature spoke, followed by a long stream of giggles. Optimus opened his optics in confusion at the voice. It couldn’t be.

But it _was_.

“N-nightlight! What are you doing here?!? How did you get here?!?” the Prime demanded, carefully standing up with the sparkling in his servos. The other looked at him with curious optics, before their attention was drawn to the sparkling.

“I have no idea!” the Nightlight responded, a big smile on her face.

“Prime, you know this ...sparkling?” Ratchet asked, slowly lowering his servos and deactivating his magnets. Optimus let out an exvent before facing the team.

“Yes, I do. Everyone, this is my sparkling, Nightlight. Nightlight, this is Ratchet, Prowl, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee.” he introduced. 

“Your sparkling?!?” Bumblebee screeched. He looked like he was about to ask more questions, but Optimus gave him a we’ll-talk-about-this-later-so-just-wait look, surprisingly able to shut him up.

“Yep, Oppy is the best guardian ever.” Nightlight bragged, puffing out her chassis slightly as she said so. Optimus blushed slightly at the praise.

“Now, Nightlight was it? Can you tell us HOW YOU GOT ON OUR SHIP!?!” Ratchet yelled. Nightlight flinched back for a split second, before puffing back up to her original size, which wasn’t that impressive. If she was standing up, she’d be just about as tall as Bumblebee’s knee.

“I already said, I don’t know. I wasn’t in control, Bit was. Though, I haven’t seen her since I woke up.” she muttered the last part to herself, but it was still audible. Ratchet gave Optimus another confused look, but Optimus quickly turned back to Nightlight.

“Hey, sweet spark, I need to talk with the bigger bots about something and I need you to wait outside. Can you do that for me?” he asked. Nightlight hesitated for a second before nodding and sprinting out the door. 

Optimus closed the door behind her, before turning back to his team, servos crossed. “So, you all have questions, I presume?” Bumblebee, unsurprisingly, was the first to speak.

“She’s _your_ sparkling?" Bumblebee asked. He didn’t say it, but what he was hinting was obvious.

“Not biologically, no. Due to an….accident with a friend, myself and two others became her guardians,” he answered. His hesitation was very notable when he said “accident” so the others decided not to push it.

“She mentioned someone named ‘Bit’ and them being in control. What was that about?” Ratchet asked. Optimus let out an exvent.

“This may take some time, so I’ll just give you the shortened version. During that same accident, Nightlight was injected with a very unhealthy amount of chemicals, which resulted in some side effects. One of those effects was Bit. Bit is sort of like an imaginary friend to Nightlight, but sometimes ...very rarely, I might add, when Nightlight feels threatened, “Bit” will take control of Nightlight, and use her body. Through past “episodes” we’ve found out that Nightlight retains no memories of what occurred when Bit was controlling her.”

“So, she gets possessed?” Bumblebee asked.

“...In a sense.” Optimus answered.

“What makes her feel “threatened?” If we’re having a possible threat onboard, I think it’ll be good to know.” Ratchet asked, crossing his servos.

“Well, the only known trigger so far is medical equipment, specifically simple, low-tech kinds, like scalpels or needles. If you approach her without an explanation of what you're going to do...the results won’t be good.” Oppy said, recalling a certain incident that ended up with several doctors, nurses, and security guards with bites, scratches, and dents after a certain nurse decided to take an energon sample from Nightlight as she was waking up from a nap.

“Any more questions?” Optimus asked. None of the bots said anything, so Optimus walked over to the door and opened it.

“Thank you, Nightlight,” he said formally. Nightlight stood up straight and gave a tiny salute, pulling some giggles out of Bumblebee.

“So, Nightlight, could you tell me anything you remember before you appeared on the ship? Anything at all?” Optimus asked, subspacing the datapads before going down to one knee. Nightlight pondered for a moment, before answering.

“Well ...I was on my berth like usual, all alone and really bored. The hospital people took away all the fun stuff in the room, so I had nothing to do.” Optimus had a lurking suspicion that “fun stuff” was anything mechanical. “I was talking with Bit, when a mech came in with a needle, saying he was there for “samples,” whatever that meant. Bit _really_ didn’t like him, and I’m not sure what happened next since Bit took over, but I woke up in a cylinder on this ship.”

Optimus stiffened at the needle part but didn’t interrupt.

“Before she disappeared, Bit told me that she was able to get us on your ship, but I fell into a really cold cylinder thing, making me go into recharge. I then woke up, and hid, and then jumped out, and got you!” 

“Nightlight, when you left the hospital, you scared everyone really bad. We thought you were in danger. Next time, don’t leave. And that goes for Bit as well.” Optimus chastised

Nightlight gave a small nod, at least having the decency to look ashamed. Optimus let out a small exvent before continuing.

“Now, I’m going to make a call to Autobot command and check our route. If there’s an Autobot Colony on the way, I’ll call Sentinel to come and meet us there to take you back to Cybertron, along with Prowl,” he said. Nightlight looked up at him, a small spark in her optics.

“So...I get to stay with you until then?” she asked. Optimus smiled and chuckled a bit.

“Well, I don’t see any other options.” Nightlight clung to his ped in a hug, saying the words “thank you” over and over again in rapid succession.

“Hold up, kid. Before you go around the ship willy nilly, I’m gonna need to give you a health exam.” Ratchet interrupted.

“IF YOU CAN CATCH ME!” she yelled, before running straight to the wall and climbing up it and into the vents.

“Did...did she just climb up the wall?” Bumblebee asked.

“I take it this was one of those ‘side effects’ you mentioned.” Ratchet said aloud. Optimus rubbed the back of his neck and gave an embarrassed smile.

Well, now things would most definitely never be boring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For specifics, Nightlight is about 1.2 meters tall, 4 feet for my fellow American folks


	5. And So It Begins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I gave the height of Nightlight, I figured I should probably include everyone else's heights for scale. I couldn't find a solid "canon" height, so I consulted the magical realm of google and got this:
> 
> Nightlight - 4 ft, 1.2 m  
> Optimus - 21 ft, 6.4  
> Bumblebee - 12.8 ft, 3.9 m  
> Prowl - 15.2 ft, 4.65 m  
> Ratchet - 17.6 ft, 5.35 m  
> Bulkhead - 22 ft, 6.7 m (top of helm)

“Well, you seem to be fine. Just don’t jump off any more rocks.” Ratchet said, finally putting away all his doctor stuff.

“Fiiiiine.” I groaned. Apparently anything fun was off-limits now, thanks to Mister Grumpy Bot. I was _bored_ , especially since Bit disappeared again, so I found ways to entertain myself. Sadly, they weren’t very _smart_ ways.

“Now, let’s go pull Optimus away from those history vids. We’ve got a job to do.” Ratchet said. I happily jumped off the berth.

“Last one there’s a rotten rust stick!” I yelled, taking off down the hallway.

Things had so far been pretty great since I got here on _The Orion_. Oppy was amazing(like always) but I noticed that he got _really_ stressed. So what do I do? I ask him to play with me and slowly watch his stress melt away. Ratchet was pretty nice too, and he was definitely nicer than the mech with the needle. So far, I haven't seen any needles at all, and he gives me energon goodies every time I’m good during a medical exam! Bumblebee is so much fun to play with, and Bulkhead was also really nice and often joined me and Bee when we were playing. Prowl was the most distant, but that doesn’t mean that he was any less interesting, oh no. It has become my personal mission to get my servos on his holo-projector and see how it works. So far, I’ve only succeeded in getting his shurikens, which were still really cool(Oppy wasn’t too happy afterward, going on about how “they were dangerous” and “I could’ve stabbed myself,” but it was worth it).

The boring droning of Oppy’s history vid was filling the command room, going on about “brutal Decepticons” and whatever “courageous exploits” were. Honestly, I couldn’t make any sense out of the video, but Oppy once told me that once I was older, he would tell me.

“What a load of sc ...rusted metal.” Ratchet said, trying to not curse in front of me. It happened once when Ratchet dropped a heavy rock on his ped. Bumblebee had slammed his servos over my audials, but I still heard it. Later, when I tripped and face-planted into the ground, I said it, and everyone got really mad. Not at me, though. At Ratchet. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Oppy mad before.

“Why do you watch those boring videos?” I asked Oppy, leaning on his knees and giving him a curious look.

“All the great Autobot leaders learned from the past.” 

“But...you’re already a great leader and an even better caretaker,” I said, thoroughly confused at why Oppy was trying to be better. Oppy blushed a bit at my praise, but Ratchet interrupted it.

“Besides, the Great War ended centuries ago.” Ratchet said.

“But you were there, Ratchet. You saw some action. What were the Decepticons really like?” Oppy asked. I moved my look from Oppy to Ratchet. No one really told me anything about Decepticons, only that they were bad and were no longer on Cybertron. I don’t know why I was curious about them, but it was a feeling I had whenever they were brought up.

“Believe me, kid, you’re better off not knowing. Besides, looks like the young bots could use a servo.” Ratchet responded, pointing out the window.

“Bumblebee, my wrecking ball is stuck again,” Bulkhead said, his wrecking ball stuck in some rocks, leaving him dangling from a tall ridge. I let out some giggles, while Oppy let out a tired sounding exvent, before getting up from his chair, picking me up along with him. 

Was I old enough to walk? Yes. Did I like it when Oppy carried me? Also yes. It was just that the gentle thrum and heat of his spark was calming, and made me feel safe.

“You ever get the feeling you were programmed for more than just repairing space bridges?” Oppy said.

“I got a diagnostics program that can delete that feeling like a bad line of code,” Ratchet responded as Oppy pressed a button. A loud alarm started blaring as the tunnel opened, a barren looking rock appearing at the other end. Oppy set me down, and I took a small step back as both Oppy and Ratchet transformed.

“When will I be able to transform?” I asked as I jumped on the back of Oppy’s alt-mode.

“When your T-cog is finished developing,” Ratchet responded, only getting a small huff out of me. It wasn’t developing fast enough for my sense of curiosity. The two bigger bots suddenly sped off down the tunnel, with the wide expanse of space surrounding us on almost all sides.

“All right, what seems to be the problem?” Oppy asked as he transformed. I jumped off quickly and started exploring more of the asteroid. Usually, if the location of the Space Bridge was safe and small enough, Oppy would let me explore, but only as long as I promised to be careful. At first, I tried to help them clear the Space Bridge but soon found out that I was too small to do much, so I had to find something else to do. And that’s when it hit me. Rocks.

I had collected a large assortment of rocks, varying in color and shininess. My favorite was a chunk of something called “Rainbow Titanium Quartz”....not sure how or why Bulkhead knew what it was, but I’m not complaining. 

I kept turning over rocks, breaking some in half, or flat out pulling them out of the ground but found nothing interesting. Just plain old rocks. Since I had spent so much time looking for rocks, I eventually got Oppy to read me a geology datapad, so I could at least identify the dangerous ones. And some of the really common ones, like breccia or basalt.

A loud explosion sounded behind me, along with some yelling. I turned around, only to see the Space Bridge activated. Strange. According to Ratchet, the number of rocks covering it should’ve made it impossible. Another thing I noticed about the Space Bridge. It was sending massive rocks straight toward me! 

I broke off in a sprint as a shadow appeared above me, but no matter where I went, a rock crashed there soon before and I soon found myself corralled in a ring of rocks. I tried climbing up one, but the rock was too smooth for my servos to stick and the parts that they did stick to weren’t strong enough to support my weight. A new shadow appeared above my helm, along with a new rock. I let out a small yelp and curled into a ball, trying to make myself as small as possible. A loud crack sounded above me, along with a small shower of dust.

“Nightlight, are you okay?” I heard a voice above me. I peered my helm up from my ball shape, only to see Oppy’s concerned face. I let out a relieved sigh and gave a small nod, the rock walls around me slowly being pushed down. I walked out of the confined space, only to see the other bots staring at Oppy like he’d grown a second helm.

“Where did you learn moves like that?” Bulkhead asked.

“Oppy trained at the Autobot Academy,” I said with pride.

“So how’d an academy bot end up on a broken-down maintenance crew,” Ratchet asked, looking up from repairing Bumblebee.

“Yeah, shouldn’t you be leading the Cybertron Elite Guard or something?” Bumblebee asked.

Oppy started talking, but a small glint in the corner of my optic distracted me from him. I turn toward it, only to see a rock. A plain, old, _massive_ rock. The thing was practically the size of Oppy! 

I started walking toward it, only for voices to start whispering. At least, I think they were voices. They didn’t sound like any voices I’d ever heard, but it definitely wasn’t music, and I could almost make out words. I think.

As my servo grazed the surface, bright blue lights started flashing out of it, and the whispers grew slightly louder.

Right before my optics, bright pictures appeared in rapid succession, almost like one of Oppy’s history vids. The first one was me, but I seemed ...older. Like, I looked to be around Oppy’s age. I was standing alone outside a building, only for Oppy to greet older me and ask for directions. The picture changed, and I was sitting at a desk next to Elita, both of us holding datapads and talking. The picture flashed a third time, this time showing older me and Sentinel crashing into each other. Then, the picture flashed a final time, with older me strapped to a table as a figure with a scalpel-

“NIGHTLIGHT!” A voice yelled, snapping me out of my trance. I whipped around in a second, blinking a few times to get the white spots out of my vision. I looked up and around, only to see everyone looking at me with varying degrees of concern.

“What ...what happened?” I asked.

“You were in a weird trance. You weren’t answering us, and we got worried.” Bulkhead answered, his voice laced with sympathy.

I turned my optics back to the rock, only for the glowing and whispering voices to have stopped. I touched it a second time, but nothing happened. But….. I got a feeling from it. Something was inside, and it needed to be freed.

“Hmmm,” I said. I looked around, trying to find a smaller rock. I did find one, but when I smashed it against the bigger rock, it crumbled to pieces.

“What are you trying to do?” Oppy asked me.

“Something ...something is inside the rock,” I said, trying to find another rock to try and smash. Oppy then pulled out his axe and powered it up.

“Prime, you sure this is a good idea?” Ratchet asked, eyeing the rock with no little suspicion. But Oppy didn’t listen and brought his axe down on the rock, splitting it in half. The bright light returned, along with the whispering voices.

Inside the rock was a glowing orange case with grey handles. It was illuminating everything with a bright blue light, but not blinding me with its brightness.

“What is it?” Bulkhead whispered.

“I don’t know. Maybe we should take it back to the ship so Doc Bot can check it out.” Bumblebee suggested, reaching for the strange box.

“Leave it.” Ratchet said, causing Bumblebee to flinch back. “Or better still, throw it back through the Space Bridge. This thing isn’t meant to be found.”

As he said those words, I felt a pulse of worry and denial come from the box. 

“No,” I said aloud, shocking everyone around me. “It wants to come with us.” At my words, the box sent a pulse of happiness.

“How do you know that?” Bumblebee asked me.

“It said so,” I answered nonchalantly.

“What’s got you so spooked Ratchet?” Oppy asked, but the Autobot face on his shoulder started flashing.

“Teletraan-1 to Optimus Prime. Teletraan-1 to Optimus Prime. Unidentified spacecraft entering this sector. Energy signature consistent with Decepticon Warship.” the message said.

“Decepticon? That must be a mistake. The Decepticons were destroyed centuries ago.” Oppy said, sounding really confused.

“Defeated, not destroyed.” Ratchet corrected. “And we’re not waiting around for them to find.” he then transformed. “What are you bots waiting for, an invitation? Load it up, pronto!”

Prowl and Bumblebee moved to pick up the box, carefully loading it into Ratchet.

“Wait, Ratchet! Why the sudden urgency? What is this thing?” Oppy asked.

“There’s no time, let’s move!” Ratchet then sped off toward the ship, the fastest I’d seen him move since I got here. The rest of us were quick to follow, with Oppy picking me up before quickly walking toward _The Orion_.

Once we were inside, Oppy did something to start the ship, but I didn’t pay much attention since all of it was completely focused on the box. The whispers had grown slightly more panicked, but the lights stayed the same.

“You’re the history bot, Prime. You ever hear of the Allspark?” Ratchet asked Oppy as Bumblebee and Prowl unloaded the box.

“Yeah, the most powerful energy source in the universe. It gave the spark of life to all Cybertronians.”

“Everybot knows that story,” Bulkhead said before his attention was drawn back to the box. We were all gathered around, but I was standing closest. 

“Here’s another one. The only way to win the Great War all those centuries ago was by keeping the Allspark out of Decepticon servos.” Ratchet started, but I finished it. The pictures flashing in front of me gave me all I needed to know.

“You sent the Allspark through a Space Bridge to the farthest corner of the universe where no one would ever find it, until now.” I finished.

“T-that...that’s right.” Ratchet said, clearly very surprised. “How do you know that?”

I looked up at him and made direct optic contact. “It told me.”

“So, you’re saying we found the Allspark. The real Allspark!” Bumblebee said in complete disbelief.

“No,” I said, getting more strange looks. “It found us.” 

Another loud alarm started blaring, this one came with a message.

“Warning, Spacecraft approaching. Positive identification as Decepticon Warship.” the computer said.

“It’s not the only thing that found us.” Prowl said. Oppy scooped me up in his servos and ran to the bridge, the others not far behind. They each took their respective seats, with Oppy setting me down on the extra one before going to his.

“It’s following us.” Prowl imputed, a steady beep sounding from his monitor.

“You wanted to see action, kid? Be careful what you wish for.” Ratchet said, giving Oppy a look.

“Hello, we’re a repair crew. Please tell me you’re not actually thinking about taking on Decepticons!?!” Bumblebee screeched.

“Not without back-up,” Oppy said. “Patch me to Cybertron Command Headquarters.”

“Wow, when you want back-up, you go straight to the top,” Bulkhead commented before doing what Oppy commanded.

“Optimus Prime.” A familiar voice said. I could help but scowl. “You mean they still let you command Autobots?”

“Don’t start, Joltcircut. Just put me through to Ultra Magnus.”

Joltcircut was a bright yellow mech with neon blue highlights and a grey protoform underneath his armor. His frame was somewhere in between Optimus and Sentinel in bulkiness, but it was still stream-lined enough for him to be fast. His Sigma was two electrically charged sais that apparently hurt a lot. Oh…..and he’s an absolute _jerk_ (at least, whenever he called Oppy he was). I would call him something worse, but the only curse word I know is scrap and that isn’t the right one.

“Now, how could a third-rank rock bust possibly merit the supreme commander’s attention?” Joltcircut said, his smirk and voice making me want to punch him through the screen.

“Display cargo hold visual,” Oppy commanded.

A small image of the Allspark doing a light show in the cargo bay appeared on the screen. Joltcircut looked _shocked_ (pun intended). 

“I'll ...put you through right away.” Joltcircut’s face disappeared from the monitor, while Ratchet and Oppy shared a smile. Another picture appeared on the screen, this one of a navy and white bot with a neutral face. Now, I’ve never seen Ultra Magnus before, but I’m _pretty_ sure that was Ultra Magnus.

“Ultra Magnus here, Optimus. We’re tracking your Decepticon signal. Probably just a lost scout ship. Ever since we drove them off Cybertron, the ‘Cons have been wandering the periphery. They’d never be so foolish as to invade Autobot Space.” Ultra Magnus said. His sentences were short and got to the point, his face not so much as twitching. “ Still, I’m sending out a strike force to intercept if necessary. Meantime, you and your bots just sit tight. And Prime.” 

I looked up. It could be something important that I might want to know for later.

“Don’t try to be a hero. It’s not in your programming.” and with that, he disappeared, leaving me slightly mad.

What did he mean Oppy wasn’t a hero? Oppy was amazing! And he saved me from those rocks earlier. So, why shouldn’t he try to be a hero? It made no sense.

“Decepticons, still on our tail and closing in fast.” Prowl said.

“So, uh ...why don’t we seem ‘em?” Bumblebee asked, looking around the window.

“Teletraan-1, set a course for the nearest Space Bridge,” Oppy said, sitting back down in his seat and typing away at some buttons.

“But, Ultra Magnus said to sit tight.” Bulkhead opposed, turning around in his seat to look at Oppy.

“With all due respect, Ultra Magnus isn’t carrying the Allspark,” Oppy said, sounding slightly upset too. “So, we’ll make a bee-line for a Space Bridge and blast through whatever debris in our way.”

_The Orion_ kept flying, with some rocks floating here or there. But suddenly, a massive black shape rose in front of us. Much larger than our ship and definitely _not_ blastable.

“Uh, Bossbot.” Bulkhead started. “I don’t think we can blast through that.”


	6. Run

“I’ve never seen a Decepticon ship up close.” Bulkhead continued. We were all staring at the ship with mixed degrees of shock and horror.

“No one has, and lived.” Ratchet said. I couldn’t help but shrink slightly in my chair.

“It’s a command ship,” Optimus confirmed. “I recognize the markings from the history vids.”

“Megatron.” Ratchet whispered. The name sent chills through my plating.

“Megatron! As in the cruel and vicious Decepticon leader who eats Autobot protoforms for breakfast!” Bumblebee screeched. I started pulling my limbs in close, drawing my peds close to my chest and wrapping my servos around them.

Oppy must’ve noticed my fear because he shot a glare at Bumblebee before I cried out.

“LOOK!” I yelled, pointing out the window. One of the Decepticon’s guns was powering up and seemed to be aimed directly at us. Loud alarms started blaring, no doubt picking up on the powering-up weapons.

“Teletraan-1, evasive maneuvers!” Oppy yelled. The ship quickly turned around and took off, quickly dodging the incoming shot, but knocking me around in my seat.

“Activate emergency defense system. Codename: Omega.” Oppy told the blaring computer.

“I’m sorry. This function has been disabled in compliance with Cybertron’s ongoing efforts to conserve Energon.” Teletraan-1 said.

“What?” Oppy said, completely shocked. The ship suddenly turned again, this one enough to send everyone flying out of their seats, including myself. I landed with an “oof” on the ground.

“We’re all gonna die, aren’t we,” Bumblebee said from his spot on the floor, not even opening his optics. I was trying to will myself to not cry, but I was  _ scared _ and couldn’t stop the coolant starting to pool in my optics.

“Warning, asteroid field. Initiating alternate route.” The computer said, but Oppy was quickly back on his peds and at the controls.

“No, override!” Oppy yelled. The ship suddenly dove into the asteroid field, weaving and turning to avoid not only the asteroids but the lasers from the Decepticon ship as well. I picked myself up off the floor and ran to Oppy’s chair, clinging to his ped.

A security feed from outside the ship appeared, showing a very scary looking mech with glowing red optics.

“Is that ...Megatron?” Oppy said. Ratchet gave a silent nod, the fear visible on his face.

“You never said he was so big,” Bulkhead said.

“You never said he could fly,” Bumblebee added. And that was a terrifyingly correct point. Megatron was flying directly at our ship. For a split second, he appeared in front of the window, but then, he disappeared.

In all honesty, not knowing where he was more terrifying than knowing. A heavy silence filled the room, almost daring anyone to try and break it.

“Huh, guess he wasn’t coming for us,” Bulkhead spoke, being the one to challenge the silence. Immediately after he spoke, a loud band shook the ship and a glowing purple spot appeared on the ceiling, and it was rapidly growing.

“Ratchet, seal the hull breach! Prowl, hold the ship steady! Bulkhead, Bumblebee, take Nightlight to the cargo bay and keep her and the Allspark safe! I’ll hold off Megatron!” Oppy yelled. As the two ran past, Bulkhead scooped me up in his servos, roughly pulling me away from Oppy’s ped.

“But, we’re repair bots!” Bumblebee yelled. “We’re not programmed for this kind of action!”

“Then consider this an upgrade,” Oppy said. Bulkhead kept running down the hallway, and I didn’t try to fight him. Instead, I just curled into his big frame and tried to shut out what was happening.

We are  _ not _ being boarded by Megatron. Oppy  _ isn’t _ going to do something that could get him offlined. We  _ aren’t _ going to  _ die _ .

I must’ve started crying, because I felt Bumblebee’s digit running across my cheek, wiping away the coolant.

“Hey, it’ll be okay, Nightlight. Boss Bot’s gonna make sure that we’ll be safe, and you know Optimus better than anyone.” Bumblebee said, his voice surprisingly gentle. “Besides, if Megatron beats Optimus, Ratchet’ll have to take over, and we all know that’ll be a disaster.”

A small giggle escaped my derma, getting a small smirk to appear on Bumblebee’s face.

A loud explosion ruined the moment, knocking all of us off our peds. Bulkhead curled his body around me defensively, stopping me from smashing into the floor. The three of us were sent tumbling into a wall, knocking over a variety of crates in the process.

The Allspark started glowing again, the whispers sounding more frantic that the first few times I heard it.

“Hey, what’s that thing doing?” Bumblebee asked.

“Wha?” Bulkhead said in response. I curled closer into his frame, pulling up my servos to cover my audials, trying to block out the whispers. They were practically deafening me, and they kept repeating “ _ protect, save, keep _ ” over and over again. The entire ship glowed blue for a few seconds before I felt the familiar weird twinge of going through a space bridge.

“Bulkhead, Bumblebee, report. NgaaAAA!” Oppy’s voice over the comms was quickly cut off by his yelling, followed by a loud smash and struggle noises.

“Nightlight, you stay here. Bulkhead and I are gonna go help Bossbot. And hide!” Bumblebee commanded as he and Bulkhead ran for the door, closing it behind them. I let out a small whimper, now alone in the darkroom.

But the Allspark let out some calming waves, and its whispers were more soothing than before. Quieter and comforting. I crawled closer, trying to completely immerse myself in the waves. I found myself lulled into a small moment of calm, letting the Allspark soothe me. At that moment, nothing else mattered. It was just me and the Allspark.

That moment lasted about ...10 seconds before I was thrown into the wall, the Allspark landing on top of me. For being such an important artifact, it was surprisingly heavy. I wrapped my servos around it and let its whispers try and lull me again, desperately wanting that sense of peace back. A loud crash to my right sounded, but with the Allspark on top of me, I couldn’t see anything. I heard some pained groans that sounded very familiar 

Oppy.

“Bring me the Allspark and I may spare you miserable Autobot lives.” a deep voice spoke. Just their voice alone made me want to hide in the nearest shadows and disappear. Something about them ignited a feeling of pure terror in my spark, though I couldn’t find out exactly why.

I heard the clanging of metal, along with some more groans, before the Allspark started glowing again, its calming waves now defensive.

“What do we have here?” the evil voice spoke. The Allspark suddenly started lifting, but I held on tight. I opened my optics, only to see the biggest mech I’d ever seen in my life staring back at me, his evil red optics shining.

Megatron.

“A sparkling. What a surprise.” He said. He placed the Allspark back on the ground, but before I could run away, he picked me up with his remaining servo and brought me close again. I was like a toy in his massive servos. I could help but let out a whimper and tried to shy away from his piercing gaze, but I couldn’t move much. Something about this scenario felt _very_ familiar.

A familiar beeping noise sounded, as well as a voice on the intercom.

“Warning, docking tunnel deployed.” The voice said, and a massive suction pulled Megatron out of the room, me along with him. At the last second, he let go of me to hold onto the sides of the tunnel, and I took that moment to grab onto the tunnel side as well. Oppy then came crashing into Megatron, knocking both of them further into the tunnel. It was at that moment that my grip slipped and I was sent down the tunnel as well.

I slammed my optics shut, silently wishing the world away. The wind around me was loud, but the alarmed whispers of the Allspark were louder. A familiar servo grabbed onto mine and pulled me close, and the whispers quieted. Oppy had saved me.

I let all the tears I had let build up come out at that moment, which was surprisingly a lot.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. I’ve got you.” Oppy murmured into my audials. Against his chassis, I could feel the steady thrum of his spark, a stable reminder of where I was.

Pretty soon, I felt Oppy running, but I didn’t dare open my optics. I was too afraid that this wasn’t real.

“Warning. Planetary impact: Imminent.” the computer said.

“Everyone into the stasis pods,” Oppy commanded. I felt him gently set me down, but I stayed curled up in my ball, my optics shut.

This isn’t happening. This isn’t happening. This isn’t happening. I’m still in my hospital room. This isn’t happening. I’m safe. This isn’t happening. This isn’t happening. This isn’t  _ happening _ .

“What about you?” I heard Bumblebee ask.

“Not until I’ve steered us clear of this populated sector!” I heard Oppy yell. Any words said after that were too muffled to hear, if any words were said at all.

The chill of the stasis pods set in around me, calling me to a calm place that I could deny. But then, a thought shook me, but it was too late.

I forgot about Bit.


	7. Earth

“Nightlight~,” a voice said. I waved a numb servo in their general direction. “Nightlight~,” the voice repeated.

“Five more klicks,” I mumbled. Though it sounded a lot more like “fh m klk”

“Nightlight, wake up.” the voice said again. I lazily opened my optics, colors and dim lights filling my vision. I picked myself up from off the ground of the stasis pod, stretching my sore joints.

What ...happened? I remember going Ratchet for jumping off a rock...then ...oh. We found the legendary Allspark, fought Megatron, the leader of the Decepticons, and lived.

I opened my optics a bit wider, taking in my surroundings. There was Oppy, who was kneeling down next to me, along with Bumblebee, Ratchet, Bulkhead, and Prowl here, and a faint alarm was blaring. The lights were off and the others still seemed to be recovering, so they must’ve just woken up too.

“How long have we been in stasis?” I heard Oppy ask.

“And what’s with the alarm?” Bumblebee added. An oozing noise sounded from one of the vents closer to the ground, and a ball of maroon sludge worked its way into the room.

“Probably that.” Prowl commented, pointing at the thing. In direct response, the thing jumped on Prowl’s servo, which he desperately tried to shake off. Ratchet quickly used his magnets and made a small magnetic bubble around the thing, pulling it off Prowl’s servo and keeping it trapped.

“Whatever it is, it's definitely got circuitry.” Ratchet commented, bringing the thing slightly closer to his optic. “And….. _something_ else.”

Oppy walked over to his console and started pressing buttons. “Teletraan-1, scan the area. See what’s going on out there.” A picture on the monitor appeared, of a big red and tan…. something eating some transformed bots!

“Looks like they need help,” I said aloud.

“Even so, we don’t want to draw unwanted attention in case some Decepticons are out there watching. Teletraan-1, scan the local life forms. We can take on their appearance and blend in better.” Oppy said. 

A cylinder then rose up from the ground, and a door opened. The chamber inside was big enough for a bot even Bulkhead’s size to fit in and had a bunch of tech inside. Slowly, one by one, all of the bigger bots went inside, each one coming out slightly different.

“Autobots, transform and roll out!” Oppy said. All at once, each of them bots transformed into their new alt-modes. These new alt-modes, while different, were no less impressive than their original ones and I had to mentally restrain myself to stop from jumping on them and checking out every nook and cranny.

“Not bad, eh?” Oppy said aloud.

“Sweet.”

“Impressive.”

“Roomy.”

“It’ll do.” I let out a small snicker. Of course, Ratchet would say that. 

I practically sprinted up to Oppy’s alt-mode, surprised to find a small door. Strange. I opened it, only to find that the metal inside was curved in a shape that almost made it seem... purposeful. There were two seats, both of which felt quite soft when I sat on them. There were also straps attached to each seat which could be secured around my frame. Maybe this frame type was meant for carrying smaller beings or cargo?

As the door opened, Oppy took point and sped through the liquid surrounding the ship. I pressed my faceplate against the glass, completely mesmerized by this other world. There were long green things connected to the ground that swayed back and forth, along with some massive grey things that darted away when we got too close.

“Don’t worry, Nightlight. Once we’re done here, you’ll be able to explore all you want.” Oppy said, noticing my insatiable curiosity. I let out an exvent as Oppy went up a ramp out of the liquid, only to find the other bots driving away.

“Greetings, fellow bots. We’re here to help.” Oppy greeted, but a giant tentacle slammed down, sending Oppy flying into the air. But thankfully, the strap kept me from tumbling around inside. Oppy noticed Prowl creeping closer, but Oppy stopped him.

“Do not engage that thing yet,” Oppy said. “Keep your scanners peeled for Decepticons.”

Just then, a swarm of tiny flying robots flew in and started firing at the blob creature, but they didn’t seem to do anything except annoy it.

“If those are Decepticons, we got  _ nothing _ to worry about.” Bumblebee commented. More rocks fell from in front of us, knocking me around more inside of Oppy.

“Whaaaaa!” Bulkhead yelled. I looked over at him, seeing him wrapped up in one of the monster's tentacles with one of the tiny robots hovering in front of him.

“Any of you little bots know what this thing is? Or how to get it off me?” he asked, but the tiny bot didn’t answer and just watched. Rude.

Bumblebee came tearing in a second later, cutting off the tentacle and setting Bulkhead free.

“Can _anybody_ talk on this planet?!?” Bumblebee exclaimed.

Oppy then started speeding toward Bumblebee and Bulkhead, one of his doors opening.

“Nightlight, this is getting too dangerous for you. I want you to hide, okay. I’ll get you when it’s safe.” he commanded. I gave a tiny nod before clambering out and making a sprint for the massive building full of(what I thought was) recharging bots. 

I looked around the building, seeing a ramp going up. Maybe if I climb up, I’ll be able to help Oppy. It took some time to find the entrance to the ramp, but once I did, I ran up them as fast as I could.

I rounded the first corner, only to collide head-on with something about my size, but a bit smaller. I fell back on my skid plate but was otherwise unharmed. The thing I hit let out a small groan.

I opened my optics, only to see the strangest creature I’d ever seen in front of me. They had a tan protoform, with some orange and creme…..armor? It didn’t seem very strong, but maybe I was wrong. Their helm had red protrusions coming out of it, and they also dark brown, almost reddish, optics. Around their neck seemed to be a card of sorts and there were some small items on their helm protrusions, matching the color of their “armor”.

“What are you?!?” it cried out.

“What are  _ you _ ?!?” I yelled back. The creature made a small pout and wrinkled their olfactory sensor.

“I’m a human. What are you?” they repeated.

“I’m a Cybertronian” I responded. I carefully stood back up, offering a servo to her. “I’m Nightlight. What’s your designation?” 

“Designation? Oh, you mean name! I’m sorry.” they said, taking my servo.

“Sorry about what?” I asked, very confused, but they shook their helm.

“No no no, not sorry.  _ Sari _ . S-A-R-I.” they corrected.

“Sari,” I repeated. “Nice name.”

“Thanks. But, why aren’t you out there fighting with the other robots?” she asked. I let out a frustrated huff and kicked a rock on the ground.

“Oppy said it was too dangerous, so he sent me in here. But, he never said I couldn’t watch from the roof.” Sari made a mischievous face.

“It seems we had the same idea. C’mon!” She grabbed my servo and started pulling me, and I happily followed.

Once the two of us got to the roof, I saw just how big the attacking thing was. It could easily devour any of us and not even notice. Each of the crew was fighting their hardest, Oppy using his axe, Bumblebee with his stingers and Bulkhead with only one wrecking ball for some reason, but Prowl was nowhere to be seen. 

“Woah. Your friends are so cool!” I heard Sari exclaim next to me. 

“Yeah. They really are.” I gave her a small smile before returning my attention to the fight. The Teletraan-1 drone had flown down to Oppy and given him a strange thing, though I had no idea what it did.

Some of the creature’s tentacles started wrapping around one of the massive boats nearby, loud creaking noises following.

“That thing’s trying to eat that ship!” I exclaimed, pointing at the boat. Sari nodded in agreement, her expression slowly turning into one worry.

Back on the ground, Oppy had given the device to Bumblebee, who had quickly transformed and seemed to be driving into the building me and Sari were on top of, a creature tentacle close behind. Oppy had extended the handle of his axe and launched himself up at the creature, but the creature quickly blocked it.

The creature was getting smarter it seemed. Smart like…..Prowl. 

A sinking feeling in my spark quickly answered where the ninja bot had disappeared to.

“AHHHH!” a yell and crashing noise from behind me and Sari cause me to whip around. Bumblebee was hanging onto a concrete wall for dear life, a tentacle wrapped around his peds, trying to pull him down. The device Oppy had given him was flying through the air, seeming to have been knocked out of his servos.

In that instant, a plan formed, and I knew I’d get an audial-full of berating from Oppy later, but right now it was the only plan I had.

I climbed the concrete barrier that stopped anyone from accidentally falling off the building and jumped up as high as I could, just being tall enough to catch the device. Unfortunately, the weight of the device messed with my balance and I started falling off the building. 

One of the creature’s tentacles shot towards me, easily wrapping around me and pulling me closer.

“NIGHTLIGHT!” I heard Oppy yell from below. I turned my helm, only to see him and Bulkhead fighting other tentacles. However, the creature was rapidly pulling me closer to it. I looked around frantically, trying to find my target.

There.

The helm was a little way below me, and I only had one shot. 

I made my frame go as lax as possible, giving me the necessary room I needed to slip through the creature’s grasp and fall downward toward the monster’s intake.

“NOOOOOO!” I heard Oppy yell, but it was too late.

For a few seconds, nothing happened. I could feel the organic’s strange protoform pressing against me. It felt strange and wrong at how malleable but oppresive it was. Then, the device Oppy had given me activated and a strong electric shock went through everything. And then I was falling.

I landed on the ground with an “oof,” with white dust covering me and everything in the immediate area. I heard various cries from the bots around me, but no one seemed overly hurt.

“NIGHTLIGHT!” A familiar voice cried out. I was quickly scooped up in big servos and pulled impossibly tight. “Don’t do that ever again!” Oppy yelled. 

“Oppy, you’re crushing me!” I pressed against his embrace, trying to wriggle out of it.

“Sorry, sorry.” he apologized, carefully setting me down. I looked around the area, seeing Bumblebee and Bulkhead talking. Nearby, there was a suspiciously shaped lump of dust, that looked like Prowl.

“Prowl!” I called out, sprinting to the strange lump. I wiped away the dust on his face. Prowl disengaged his face mask and spoke.

“What ...what happened?” he asked. His voice sounded slightly strained. Oppy walked over and kneeled next to him.

“Your teammates just saved your circuits, Prowl. Whether you like it or not.” Oppy said, sounding the faintest bits smug, but that might’ve been just me hearing that.

Prowl tried sitting up but quickly collapsed.

“Prowl?” I asked concerned, but a quick look at his chest silence me.

There was a gaping hole, electricity sparking out.


	8. The Key

“We need to get him back to the ship right away for repairs,” Oppy said, keeping his composure. “Prime to Ratchet, prepare the medi-lab.”

Oppy quickly transformed into his alt mode. “Bulkhead, load up Prowl. _Carefully_.” 

Bulkhead walked over to Prowl and lifted him with care I’d never seen from the big bot before. I quickly jumped onto the back of Oppy’s alt-mode like I used to and sat next to Prowl. Oppy either didn’t notice or didn’t care, because he quickly yelled out “Autobots, transform and roll out!”

Oppy and Bulkhead started driving, but Bumblebee wasn’t moving.

“I said _Roll out_ , Bumblebee!” Oppy yelled. You knew Oppy was serious when he yelled. Bumblebee finally started following, but remained behind everyone and was unusually quiet.

The liquid that Oppy had driven through earlier felt weird, but right now all my attention was on Prowl. His groans had mostly stopped, but his visor kept flicking, showing him drifting in and out of consciousness.

“Hang on, Prowl,” I whispered. 

I hated this. I hated that Prowl was hurt, I hated how helpless I was, and most of all, I HATED HOW FAMILIAR THIS FELT!

It was strange. I could feel the memories, but every time I tried to grip them, just like every other memory from before “The Accident,” it slipped through my grasp.

But suddenly, Prowl.... _changed_. For a split second, he was maroon with green spikes, but just as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone.

The second the room Oppy and the others drove into drained of the liquid, Ratchet was by Oppy’s side and carefully lifted Prowl with his magnets. I jumped off the back of Oppy’s alt mode so he could transform and was immediately at Ratchet’s heels. Except, when I tried to follow him into the medi-lab, Oppy kneeled over and grabbed my servo.

“Nightlight, Ratchet needs to concentrate in order to work, and he’ll do it better if there are fewer bots around him,” he spoke, his voice gentle and quiet. I let out a vent.

“I know. I’ll wait in my room.” Oppy gave me a smile before getting up and going into the room, but he left the door open, probably for Bumblebee who had yet to enter.

I slowly started walking down the hall, but a feeling stopped me. It was like someone had attached a thin cable to my spark and was gently pulling me in a direction. It just so happened that the direction it was pulling me in was the same location as the Allspark.

As I got closer, the pulling feeling became more clear and easier to follow, but the direction never changed. Once I entered the room, I vaguely noticed some knocked over boxes, but most of my attention was on the Allspark. The orange box was opened, revealing a many-sided, glowing blue, sphere-thing inside. It was sending calming waves, but they seemed to have more ...meaning to them. Like it was trying to tell me something.

“What is it?” I whispered to it. “What do you want from me?”

A scream from above me interrupted my thoughts, as well as the sudden force of something landing on me. I hit the ground with an “oof,” almost hitting the Allspark in the process.

“Nightlight?” A familiar voice spoke. 

“Sari?” I said back. Sari quickly got off of me and helped me up. “What are you doing here? HOW did you get here?”

“Bumblebee and Bumblebee,” she answered. Well, that makes sense. It also explains his lateness when Oppy asked him to Roll Out. Her attention was quickly drawn to the Allspark, giving it a tranced look.

“What is it?”

“The Allspark,” I responded. “Can you hear it too?”

Sari’s only response was a nod when the Allspark reacted. It sent a blue light over her body, a lot like Ratchet’s scanner, just... blue. Then, it stopped. The voices and lights stopped.

“Okay ...that was weird. Did we just have a conversation?” Sari said, seemingly to the Allspark. The Allspark then shot out a small beam of light at Sari’s necklace, along with a quiet transformation sound. When the light faded, a small, key-like thing was in its place. It radiated the same energy as the Allspark, just weaker.

“If you messed this up, you owe me my security deposit-WOAH!” Sari suddenly said. I turned around, only to see the Oppy and Bumblebee had snuck up behind me and Sari. Oppy raised her close to his face, giving her a semi-serious look.

“How did you get aboard this ship?” he asked her.

“Bumblebee,” I answered, pointing a servo in his direction. Now, Bumblebee might be my friend, but I’m not letting Oppy kick Sari out. Not after.... whatever _that_ was with the Allspark.

“It followed me home.” Bumblebee answered sheepishly. He paused for a few seconds before adding, “Can I keep it?”

Sari made a small pout and crossed her servos. “Hey, I’m not an " _it_ ", I’m a " _she_ ".”

“So I suppose you have an explanation?” Oppy asked.

“Actually....I’m nailing it down to my top five,” he answered back.

“PRIME! YOU BETTER GET UP HERE NOW!” I heard Ratchet yell from his comm-link. Oppy quickly scooped me up in his other servo had sprinted out the storage room with Bumblebee close behind him.

What we walked in on was Ratchet attaching something to Prowl’s chest, a concentrated but worried look in his optics. Bulkhead was leaning over in worry, and Bumblebee quickly went to Prowl’s side as well. Oppy quickly set both me and Sari down in favor of getting closer to Prowl. Sari was looking at him with emotion, but I couldn’t tell if it was awe, shock, horror or some combination of the three.

“The circuit damage is too extensive, I can’t keep him stable!” Ratchet said, more panic leaking into his voice. Then, Sari’s key started glowing, its Allspark energy spiking. 

She let out a small gasp as the key pulled her closer to the berth, but she wasn’t tall enough to get on top of it. I was immediately by her side, lifting her onto my shoulders, but it still wasn’t enough height. Bumblebee decided to help as well since he lifted both of us onto the berth. We both gave him a thankful smile before Sari’s key started pulling her toward Prowl.

There was a small, almost key-hole like indent in Prowl’s chest, and it seemed to be where Sari’s necklace wanted to go. It transformed to fit the shape and plugged itself into the hole. A bright white light erupted from the wound, Allspark energy pouring from it. The energy seemed to fill me up as well, and any aches I had instantly vanished.

Once the light faded, Prowl was healed. His chest wound was gone and he seemed... shinier than before.

Everyone, myself included, looked wide optic-ed as Prowl sat up and looked down at the wound.

“That is...quite the cure,” he said.

“You can say that again,” I said in awe. I reached forward and touched the plating with my servo, but it seemed just as strong, if not stronger than it was before.

“Can all “shes” do that?” Bumblebee asked.

“ _I_ don’t even know how I did that,” Sari responded.

“I do,” I said aloud. Everyone turned toward me. “It was the Allspark. Didn’t you guys feel the surge of energy coming from it?”

“N-no. I think that was just you.” Bumblebee said back.

“Huh.”

“At this point, nothing surprises me. I’ve seen more action in this solar cycle than my entire Cybertron service career.” Oppy said, sounding like he just wanted to recharge for the rest of the cycle. I couldn’t relate since the Allspark energy had given me a power surge and all fatigue had vanished along with the aches.

The monitor in the corner of the medi-lab activated, showing Teletraan-1’s view. I kinda forgot that it was still up there, to be honest. The picture showed a pair of flying bots, each of them had a searchlight focused on the ground. They were looking for something.

“Solar cycle isn't over yet.” Ratchet commented.

“I think my dad is looking for me,” Sari commented. So they were looking for Sari.

“Well, then let’s take you back up,” I added. In a few seconds, all of the bots had made their way to the docking bay, even Prowl(after much fussing from Ratchet, of course). Sari climbed into Ratchet while I, as per usual, climbed into Oppy. The five bigger bots drove to the surface without much difficulty, and soon we were back on land.

Ratchet must’ve been looking worried because Sari commented on how humans didn’t usually blow up things with the symbols Ratchet had. Either they meant he was someone important or something very peaceful.

Many vehicles drove up to use, their headlights bright and loud noises blaring.

“Put your hands where I can see ‘em.” One of the humans yelled. I could see what they looked like because of the bright lights, but they sounded old.

“Why do they want us to do that?” Bumblebee asked, sharing my curiosity.

“I don’t know.” Sari shrugged. “I think it’s supposed to make you look less scary or something.”

All six of us raised our servos in the air, but it seemed to have the opposite effect since the humans started to power up their weapons and point, what I think were, guns at us. Sari quickly realized the misunderstanding and stopped it before it could escalate any further.

“It’s okay, they're friendly!” Sari said. She paused for a moment before continuing. “Well, except the red and white one, he’s kinda grumpy but other than that-”

“SARI!” One of the humans yelled. He ran toward Sari and wrapped her in a gentle embrace. “Thank goodness you are okay.” He seemed to be her sire, or maybe her guardian.

“Lower your weapons!” The human from before yelled. Sari then turned back to look at us.

“It’s okay guys. You can put your hands down now.” Sari told us. I let out a small vent. Thank Primus. My servos were starting to get tired.

“So…..can we keep ‘em?”

***

The bright flashing of the camera bots illuminated the stage, accompanied by the loud cheering of the audience. Who knew that humans could be so loud? The Autobots and I were all gathered on a big stage in front of many, many, _many_ people, so it was a little intimidating. Oppy had made sure I used my best polish and I will tell you he had to physically restrain me a few times to stop me from getting dirty. The only thing that stopped me from trying right now was the promise of exploring later.

I was standing in the front, due to my size, though I didn’t mind. Being small sometimes had its perks, this being one of them.

“I want to thank the Autobots, and extend a hand of friendship from the entire human race to Optimus Prime, the leader of this brave band of heroes.” Mr.Isaac Sumdac said, his voice echoing slightly because of the microphone.

Oppy stepped forward to shake servos with him, only to realize that the size difference would make it difficult. But, quick thinking was on his size, because Oppy gracefully bent over and offered a single digit to Mr.Sumdac, which he happily shook. Oppy stood back up to full height and walked back over to the rest of us, this time lifting me up and placing me on his shoulder.

“And to think, Ultra Magnus told me not to be a hero,” Oppy said. I let out a series of giggles, both from being picked up and at how wrong Ultra Magnus was.

“Is this what it was like when you were younger, Ratchet?” I asked.

“The Decepticons didn't really leave us much to cheer about,” he spoke ominously.

Well, whatever happened then wasn’t now. And right now, Oppy was exactly to everyone else what I always saw him as.

A hero.


	9. A Friend

I’m gonna say it right now. Earth is AWESOME! They had these entire areas of space called “Playgrounds” where kids could meet with other kids and play and there was so much cool stuff! 

My favorite would either have to be the “Slide” or the “Monkey Bars.”

“TAG! YOU’RE IT!” One of the other kids suddenly touched me in the back before sprinting away. Was this another Earth game? I just stood there for a few seconds in confusion, before the same kid walked back over to me. They looked about the same age as Sari, though I wasn’t completely sure. They had a blue top armor, or a “Shirt” as Sari told me, with two gears on it and green “pants.” They also had blonde “hair” and bright green optics. Their protoform….sorry “Skin” was a pale peach color, but with some dirt on their face.

“Hey ...aren't you going to chase me?” he asked. 

“Chase you?” I asked confused. Maybe it was a part of the game?

“Well, yeah. That’s how you play.”

“I don’t know how to play.” The boy’s face lit up.

“Well, it’s easy. One person is “It” and has to chase around the other. If they tag someone, then that person is it.”

“Ohhhhhh,” I said. It suddenly made much more sense. “Well it that case…..” I quickly tapped him in the chest. “TAG! YOU’RE IT!”

The two of us sprinted around for hours, changing from “Tag” to a game called “Hide ‘n Seek” which worked how it was played. He then showed me “Hopscotch” which was surprisingly difficult, but fun nonetheless. He also showed me this thing called a “Swing Set,” but I was too heavy for him to push.

“My name’s Tommy, by the way. That’s my mom over there.” Tommy pointed at an older woman with very colorful armor("clothes" Sari's voice whispered in the back of my head) sitting on a bench, not that far away from Oppy. Oppy had Sari sitting on his shoulders and they seemed to be talking about something.

“My name’s Nightlight.”

“Hey, do you want to ask our parents if we can play again at the park?” he suggested.

“That sounds amazing!” Tommy grabbed my servo and the two of us ran over to his mom.

“Mom, could I please please  _ please _ come back to the park some time so me and Nightlight can have a playdate,” he asked. His mom smiled at him.

“Of course, as long as it’s okay with her parents. Who are your parents, sweetie?” she asked, giving the two of us a kind smile.

“I don’t have any parents…..” I started. “But I do have a guardian. C’mon. I’ll take you to him.” I carefully grabbed Tommy’s mom’s hand and started pulling her over to Oppy.

“Hello, sweetspark.” Oppy greeted. Sari wasn’t sitting on his shoulders anymore, so she was probably playing somewhere else.

“Hi, Oppy. This is my friend Tommy and his mom.” I introduced. Both of the humans were looking at Oppy with awe, but his mom quickly got over hers.

“Hello there, Optimus Prime, right?” 

“Please, you can just call me Optimus,” Oppy said.

“My name is Lena. Your daughter and my son were wondering if they could come back to the park again to play. It’s all right with me, but is it fine with you?” she asked. Oppy smiled at her.

“It’s more than fine with me. I’m just happy that Nightlight is making friends,” he said. Tommy and I shared a “high-five”(another earth custom he had taught me) before running off to the playground to play even more

***

“Your daughter really is something,” Lena said. I smiled with pride.

“She really is. Sometimes I wonder what I did to deserve her.” A small plume of guilt rose, but I quickly pushed it down. Right now, I needed to be in the moment. For Nightlight.

“Earlier, you seemed concerned about her making friends. Why is that?” she asked. I froze for a second. 

“Sorry, if it’s too personal, you don’t have to answer.” Lena quickly said, noticing my hesitation.

“No, no. It’s fine. It’s just ...a few years ago there was an accident. It was the same accident that led to Nightlight being in my care. She was gravely injured and got amnesia, and only recently has she made memories  _ outside _ of a hospital. She’s also only had contact with a limited number of bots, none of which are her age, so I guess I was worried about how others would react to her.”

It felt kinda nice to fully explain it to someone, even if they were a stranger. In fact, I think this is the first time anyone has explicitly asked about it without being vague or tip-toeing around it.

“I see,” Lena said, her optics trailing back to the two younglings playing. “Well, if you ever need any help, whether you need some to watch her or just need advice, you can come to me. Tommy is my fourth kid, so I have experience with these things.”

I smiled at her.

“I think I will.”

***

“Nightlight, it’s time to head back. Sari said that she had a place we could stay while in Detroit.” I heard Oppy call. I let out a small groan. The sun was over the horizon, giving everything an orange glow.

“Don’t worry, I’ve exchanged contact info with Tommy’s mother, so you two can play again later,” he reassured me. I waved goodbye to Tommy as Oppy lifted me onto his shoulders. 

Now that I’d taken a second to rest, I realized just how tired I was. I didn’t try to stop the yawn bubbling up my intake, as most of my energy was focused on staying awake until we got to the place where Sari said we could rest.

“You looked like you were having fun,” Oppy said. In the dying light, I could make out a smile on his face.

“Yeah, Tommy is so much fun. He taught me so many Earth games, like “Tag” and “Hopscotch” and-”

For the entire trip home, I talked about all the fun I had, and all through it, Oppy’s smile seemed to get bigger and bigger.

Earth really could become our home.


	10. Darkness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sweet Solus Prime!
> 
> I would like to thank every one of my readers for the support given, cuz I now apparently have more than 250 reads and 5 kudos!
> 
> But, the biggest thanks goes to Optimus'+girl, for giving so much support. I feel like this thanks was long overdo, and I won't be lying by saying you are one of the main reasons this story has kept going for this long. Keep being an awesome person.

It was dark by the time we arrived at the place that Sari said would be our new home. The darkness gave the warehouse a bit of an eerie feeling, but there wasn’t anything  _ too _ scary about it.

“You guys need a home base and a ship at the bottom of Lake Erie is  _ way _ too far away.” Sari motioned to the door of the warehouse. “Then, I remembered this place. My dad got it in a merger. He doesn’t even know he owns it.”

As the bigger bots turned on their lights, we got a better view of the room. There were a lot of broken columns, debris, rusted cars and an overall mess everywhere.

“Well, what’d you guys think?” Sari asked. 

“I think…..this is what you organics call “a real fixer-upper.” Bumblebee commented. I jumped down from Oppy’s shoulder to get a closer look around the room.

“Anywhere I can power down for a few mega-cycles is okay by me.” Bulkhead collapsed to the ground, causing some of the floor to collapse, kicking up a massive amount of dust. I in-vented in surprise, but that was quickly proven to be a mistake as the dust went into my vents. My vents blew out in short bursts, trying to get all the dust out.

Once it stopped, I looked up at Oppy, and with the most serious face I could, I said, “It’s really dusty.” Bumblebee snickered.

The sounds and lights of some sirens sounded outside. Well, I guess power down will have to wait.

“Sounds like someone needs help,” Oppy commented. “Autobots-”

“I know, I know,” Bulkhead said, standing up from the small crater he made. “Transform and roll out.” 

“Nightlight, I need you to stay here, alright,” Oppy said. I nodded, feeling more than happy to stay and rest. All of the Autobots sped out of the new base, leaving me and Sari.

“Well, you wanna explore?” Sari asked. I shrugged.

“I’m kinda tired, not gonna…..” but I trailed off. A whispering voice was coming from one of the halls. A familiar voice.

I sprinted to the hallway.

“H-hey, where are you going…..” Sari said in protest, but I ignored it. I jumped over debris that was small enough and climbed over the ones that I couldn’t. But every time I thought that I got closer, the whispers retreated further away. It wasn’t until the whisper stopped did I realize that I was in a  _ very _ dark room  _ without _ Sari _or_ a light source.

“ _ Is it her? _ ” a voice whispered to my right. In the inky blackness, I couldn’t make out any shapes.

“ _ I’m not sure. The queen wanted us to check. Should we bring her back? _ ” it was another voice.

“ _ No. She could be a danger. To our queen and the nest. _ ”

“Who are you?” I asked aloud. I spun around in a circle, but I saw nothing in the darkness. “Hello?” I asked again. There was no answer. I was alone.

“Oppy?” my voice was a hoarse whisper as the blackness of the room seemed to close around me, pressing against my plating and locking me in place.

Anxiety shot through my spark, along with thoughts and memories that didn’t feel like my own, but at the same time, they were.

_ Trapped….. I can’t….. not again….. claws coming out of the darkness…….. Pain…… fear….. stabbing into my protoflesh…….. please stop……. I’m scared…….. evil laughter filled the room…… help…… Quiver……. Please….. I need light…... _

All of a sudden, a bright glow came from somewhere. But just as soon as it lit, it went out, leaving me in darkness again. My fear was replaced by bewilderment.

Where did it come from? Where did it go? It was so bright, like the sun or one of the lights on  _ The Orion _ or-

The bright light came back, but this time for much longer. Was…..was the light coming from  _ me _ ?

Okay, okay ...think bright thoughts. The sun, car lights, glowing crystals….

The light came on again, but it seemed to stay!

“Yes!” I looked down at my plating, only to see instead of the black it usually was, it was a bright white that literally glowed. Looking around the room now that it wasn’t shrouded in darkness, I noticed a small hole, probably where I came in. And by the way it was positioned in the wall, it stopped what little light that was still outside from entering.

I slowly started making my way back the way I came, this time more aware of my surroundings and where I was going.

“She ran off!” Bumblebee’s loud voice echoed through the base. I was really close, in fact, if I just turned this corner…..

There they were! All of the other five bots were gathered around Sari, Oppy, and Bumblebee looking the most worried. A small, evil thought entered my processor…..

“Alright, we’ll split up in teams to search the new base. Ratchet, you and Bulkhead will search the part of the left hallway, Prowl and I will search the right hallway. Bumblebee and Sari, I need you to search this main room for anything that Nightlight could’ve gotten trapped in. If you don’t find anything, stay here in case she comes back.” Oppy commanded.

I silently turned off my light and started climbing the wall. All my time hiding from Ratchet on  _ The Orion _ was finally paying off. I waited until I was just above Oppy that I jumped down, landing on his helm.

“GOTCHA!”

“WHAT THE-” Oppy voice cut off as he fell over. All of the other bots jumped back in surprise, even drawing their weapons, but I couldn’t stop the giggles that were erupting from my mouth.

“NIGHTLIGHT!” Bumblebee yelled. He ran over and scooped me up in his servos, pulling me close. “WE THOUGHT YOU WERE GONE!”

“Oh, I was. I was stuck in a really dark room with some voices and couldn’t see anything. It was kinda scary…” I started.

“Then, how did you get out?” Bulkhead asked.

“I did this.” I started glowing again, lighting the room quite nicely. 

“You figured out how to use your Sigma.” Ratchet deduced.

“Yep!” 

Oppy let out a sigh.

“Well, next time, just wait with Sari. Besides, tomorrow is a big day. Mr.Sumdac wants us at the unveiling of a new train.” Oppy took me from Bumblebee’s servos.

“Let’s all get some recharge. For now, let’s stay here in the main room. Tomorrow after the ceremony we can start fixing this place up and assign rooms.” All of the bots nodded in agreement. 

Bumblebee transformed into his alt-mode and opened his door, calling for Sari to get inside.

“I’ll take Sari home. Be back in a flash.” And with that, Bee was gone.

“Now, Nightlight, it’s time for you to recharge,” Oppy said. He walked over to one of the collapsed columns and sat next to it, leaning on its slant. I let out another yawn and snuggled into his chest, allowing the heat and thrum of his spark lull me to recharge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're *finally* getting back to the interesting plot.
> 
> But who were the voices? Who's Quiver? And what's going on with Nightlight?
> 
> All shall be revealed.....eventually *evil laugh*`


	11. Starscream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I scream, you scream, we all scream for Starscream.

“We at Sumdac Systems continue our commitment to moving Detroit further.” Mr.Sumdac’s voice echoed across the crowd. There seemed to be even more people at this meeting than yesterday’s, and there was an abundance of cameras. “With this Fully Automated Rapid Transit System capable of speeds over 300 miles per hour.” 

The crowd erupted with deafening applause. I noticed Bumblebee whisper something to Bulkhead, but I couldn’t hear it from my place in front of Oppy. 

“I would like to thank the mayor, Police Captain Fanzone, Head Engineer Lena,” Mr. Sumdac turned around and gestured to us. “And especially our cities cybernetic superheroes for this magnificent grand opening ceremony.”

The four adult humans that stood in front of us seemed to be very important in different fields. Mr.Sumdac was the leader of the company that made the train, Captain Fanzone was head of the “police” which seemed to be the Earth-equivalent of enforcers, Mayor Edsel was the leader of Detroit(mayor seemed to be the equivalent of Magnus, but I’m not completely sure), and Lena, Tommy’s mom, was apparently the head engineer of the project. Who knew?

Behind me, Oppy and Ratchet seemed to talk about something, but like before, the noise from the crowd was too loud.

“If you would kindly direct your attention overhead, please enjoy the aerial acrobatics of The Crimson Angels!” A new noise sounded above our helms as six red and blue blurs came into view. They flew with grace, much more grace than any Autobot ship I’d ever seen from my hospital window. A small tug in my spark wanted to be up there with them, joining their dance in the sky. Bright lights flew up into the sky along with them, exploding with a loud “bang!” and turning into colors that fizzled out. Humans had such strange and beautiful forms of entertainment.

The small ships from earlier came back around and did more graceful twists and turns, but a seventh seemed to join them. It was purple and grey, unlike the others. Odd.

Mr.Sumdac seemed to notice as well.

“Odd. I thought I only paid for six jets.” As the Crimson Angels came into view once again, the seventh ship broke off from the group. At first, I thought that it was just another part of the show, but the jet was without a doubt heading straight for us!

“Is that guy nuts! He’s heading straight for us!” Bulkhead exclaimed. Ratchet let out a gasp.

“It couldn’t be….”

The jet heading straight toward us suddenly  _ transformed _ and fired a massive purple laser at us. The humans were able to run out of the way. But we weren’t so lucky. The force of the blast knocked us into the train and then back to the ground. It  _ hurt _ .

I looked up with a groan and started raising myself carefully from the ground, hoping that nothing was too badly damaged. From the smoke, a giant Decepticon was slowly flying down with thrusters on their peds, making his size apparent from the noise the concrete made when he landed. He had a dark magenta chest and light grey servos and peds with black accents. His wings were massive and attached to his servos were  _ null rays _ …..shoot. And to top it all off he had bright red optics that gave me…..it sort of felt like fear, but not…..like I needed to do what he said or I felt like something bad would happen.

“Greetings  _ Autobots, _ ” he said. His voice was scratchy and kinda nasally. “Mind if I crash the party?”

“A Decepticon? Here?” Oppy whispered to Ratchet, but the Decepticon must’ve heard.

“The name is Starscream, exulted leader of the Decepticons.” Starscream introduced.

“I thought that was Megatron.” Bulkhead pointed out. That was a good point. Wasn’t Megatron the leader of the Decepticons?

“Silence Autobot  _ filth _ .” Starscream fired another laser directly at Bulkhead, knocking both him and Bumblebee into the building behind the train. The stone above it crumbled upon their weight, sending it falling down. Oppy and Ratchet were quick to help them, pulling them out of the way just as the debris hit the ground.

Prowl made a sprint for Starscream, but he flew into the air and started rapidly firing at him. 

“You can run Autobot, but you can’t hide!” I heard Starscream yell. Prowl started climbing onto one of the nearby buildings and stood on the top, completely out in the open. Starscream dive-bombed him, but  _ it was a hologram _ (I really need to take a look at Prowl’s holo-projector)! Prowl jumped onto Starscream’s back, sending the seeker into a spiral upward, knocking into the walls of the building to try and get him off. Once Starscream got to a certain height, he grabbed Prowl and threw him into the ground. Prowl yelled on the way down, only stopping when he collided with the ground with a loud  _ crack! _

“PROWL!” I cried out. 

“I expected a little more of a challenge from such great heroes.” Starscream taunted. Oppy ran forward and fired one of his grapplers at Starscream, trying to pull him back to the ground. Starscream barely gave him more than a glance before flying off, Oppy being dragged behind him.

“Nightlight, stay here. Bulkhead, Bumblebee with me.” Ratchet commanded. The three others transformed and sped off to help Oppy. Well, if they think that I’m gonna stay here and wait while Oppy is hurt, then they  _ clearly _ haven’t figured out how stubborn I can be.

I ran over to the edge of the area where the train unveiling had been, just at the point where it dropped off with road underneath. Ratchet was picking up Oppy, with Bulkhead and Bee close behind him. Starscream seemed to be close to landing, so I needed to find a place to jump from.

“You call yourselves heroes?” Starscream mocked. “You think you defeated the great Megatron? You did no such thing!  _ I _ defeated Megatron!” Okay, Screamer was distracted. I started climbing the small building nearby to give myself the extra height I needed. I stuck close to the corner of the building, just in case I needed to use it to block Starscream’s lasers.

“ _ I’m _ the one who planted the device that overloaded his circuitry. His fate was sealed before he even reached your ship!”

“He’s lying!...isn’t he?” Bulkhead asked. I looked down from my spot on the building. I was a good distance over Starscream’s helm, just high enough to make the jump. Now, I just needed to wait for the right moment.

“Now bring me the Allspark Autobot scum!” he demanded, pointing his laser gun directly at Oppy’s helm. I let my joints recoil like a fully loaded spring, preparing to pounce.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Oppy denied. 

“Really?” Starscream asked.

I sprang forward. I was mere  _ feet  _ away from him by the time he spoke again.

“Maybe I can do something to convince you?” In a flash, Starscream whipped around and fired his laser. Not at Oppy, no. He fired it directly at me.

I didn’t even have time to react as the laser knocked me through the brick of the building I had jumped from and out the other side. Something in me made a  _ crack _ , and fire spread through my chassis. Warnings popped up in my HUD, warning me of heavy damage and a rupture somewhere, but I didn’t have time to dwell on it because I was falling.

But then, I wasn’t. I was front first on something hard and I felt really cold, but there was a bright feeling of warmth in my chassis. It didn’t feel good though. It was blinding and sharp and I wanted it to stop.

Something roughly picked me up from behind, sharp claws sending small pinpricks through the area around the warmth. The world was a constant flicker of lights and sounds, but I could make out some words.

“Let’s try this again,” the voice spoke. I could feel my body being jerked around. But I couldn’t find the energy to fight it. “Bring me the Allspark, Autobot scum!”

“My name is Optimus Prime!” Another voice said back, but there was some fear on the edges. They sounded familiar, but I couldn’t figure it out through the haze. 

“Well,  _ Optimus Prime _ , you have 3 cycles to bring me the Allspark,” the voice holding me snapped back.

I felt weightless for a few seconds before another hard surface slammed into my back. Then my front, then my back again before a colder, new surface hit me. I felt small warm touches across my frame, but the world wouldn’t focus enough for me to figure out who it was.

“Or else this vessel and all its contents.” the first voice spoke. The world around me started shaking and shifting. “Human and Autobot! Will  _ perish _ .”

The world started shaking more and the warm touches left me. I tried to reach out and grab them back, but my servos felt too heavy.

“Then I will tear this planet apart and I’ll find the Allspark myself!” The world tumbled with a crash, knocking me around. 

Then, silence. The voice didn’t speak anymore, and the world stopped moving.

“Nightlight, are you okay!” a new voice demanded. They sounded different from the previous voices.

Wait, that was Lena. Tommy’s carrier, or mom.

“L-na….” I mumbled. I tried to sit up but was pushed down. I reset my optics a few times, trying to view the world better. Though, the best I got was slightly fuzzy vision with blurred details.

“Stay down. Something in your chest has a big crack and there’s a lot of light coming from it. I don’t know anything about your anatomy, but I think it’s your power source.”

Oh. Oh no. OH NO!

The message from earlier suddenly clicked.

“Wait, don’t-” Lena started.

I looked down at my chest, suddenly wishing I hadn’t. It was a surprisingly clean shot from Starscream, but that didn’t make it any less bad. Energon and oil were leaking out of a few of my wounds, and the rest of my wires and energon lines looked charred and blackened. But through  _ all of it _ , the unmistakable silver of my spark chamber was there, as well as a crack about as long as one of my digits in the side of it. The bright blue light was visible through the crack. I felt like I was going to purge.

But strangely, there wasn’t much pain. Yes, it was uncomfortably hot and yes, moving caused small shocks to go through my limbs, but it wasn’t that bad. From what Ratchet taught me about Cybertronian frames(yes, Ratchet taught me things. His excuse was that even though I was stuck on the ship with them, I still needed an education) the spark was one of the most sensitive parts, and a still-developing spark chamber, like my own, was highly susceptible to pain and damage. That was why younglings needed to be watched so closely, at least, until their spark chamber was fully-formed.

Still, even without pain, an exposed spark can’t be good.

With some difficulty, I was able to push myself up to my peds, only for a new feeling to go shooting up one of them, causing me to hiss out in pain. I looked down at it, only to see mangled metal in its place. But  _ why _ didn’t it hurt that much?

With the help of the wall, I limped over to the entrance to peer out, to see where we were.

…..we were  _ very _ high up. From the top of Sumdac Tower, everything looked like microbots. I raised a servo to my comm, attempting to call the others, but a loud static blared in my audial. I winced at the loud noise. It must’ve been damaged earlier.

“Starscream demanded that the Autobots turn over the “Allspark” or else he’d drop us off the tower,” Lena said, placing a careful hand on my shoulder. I looked back to the outside. Even the tallest buildings didn’t even come  _ close _ to the height of the tower, and even then they were too far away. We most definitely wouldn’t survive the fall, and even if we did, the metal and glass from the train would-

Wait. Glass.

An idea sparked.


	12. Escape

“Mr.Sumdac, are there any windows this high up in the tower?” I asked, turning my helm around to look at the human.

“U-um, yes, but they can only be opened from the inside.” he stuttered.

“Perfect!” I cried out.

“What’d you mean?” Mr.Fanzone asked. Mayor Edsel gave a confused look.

“I can climb down the building, get in the tower, open the window, and get you guys to safety.” My idea was immediately met with loud protest(except from Mayor Edsel. I had yet to hear him say  _ anything _ ).

“But I  _ can _ .” I started.

“No. Nope, no  _ way _ . You don’t have the right equipment, and if you fall...” Lena trailed off, but she shook her head. “You’re  _ not _ climbing down.”

“But I  _ really can _ , Lena.” Mr.Fanzone walked forward with his arms crossed.

“Oh yeah? Prove it,” he asked. I looked at him with confusion. “Without leaving the train, prove that you can climb down the tower.”

_ Oh _ , that makes more sense.

I carefully hobbled away from the door, just in case Starscream flew by and saw. I placed both servos high above my helm on the wall, then pulled up the rest of my frame, allowing my working ped to touch the wall. It was a little harder than usual since I could only use one of my peds, but I was still able to climb it. I soon found a rhythm in my climbing, and was quickly directly above the humans.

“ _ Now _ do you believe me?” I said, peering over my shoulder to look at the humans. All four of them were looking at me with shock. I grabbed a metal pole attached to the ceiling and floor and slid down, making sure that I didn’t land on my damaged ped.

“ _ Fascinating _ . Do you use magnets? Or some kind of suction?” Mr.Sumdac asked, taking one of my servos in his gloved hands and looking at it closely.

“That’s all nice and such, but  _ how about we focus on getting off the tower first. _ ” Mr.Fanzone interrupted. That was another good point.

“I still don’t think this is a good idea.” Lena huffed. I carefully grabbed her hand.

“I’ll be fine, Lena. I promise.” I looked at her with the most serious face I could. She looked at me with uncertainty, but it slowly melted into something else. She let out a small huff, before giving a small nod. I smiled and hobbled over to the door.

I peeked around, making sure that Starscream wasn’t paying attention, only to see him hoving in place with his back to the tower. He seemed to be yelling things at Oppy, and didn’t look like he was paying attention to us.

_ Perfect _ .

I walked to the side of the tower facing away from Starscream and started my climb down.

***

I took an invent. This was the riskiest part of the plan. 

From atop the blimp, I could make out Optimus conversing(more like shouting) with Starscream. Sari was safely in my servos, while Bumblebee was clinging to my back. He was the only other team member who was small enough to come and had been surprisingly quiet. It was probably the threat of humans… and Nightlight.

I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t worried. While I might not have been the closest to her, I still saw her as an innocent youngling with a big processor and an even bigger spark.

“Decepticons are  _ masters  _ of deception,” Starscream said as he started lowering himself. Now it was our turn.

“Hang on tight,” I warned Bumblebee, before jumping up and using my boosters to propel us the necessary distance to the train.

“What is going on down there?” I heard Captain Fanzone ask.

“A rescue. That’s what.” Sari answered. The humans jumped back at the surprise, but Professor Sumdacc was the first to come closer.

“Sari! How did you get up here?” 

“Same way you’re getting down,” I responded, raising my helm close to the window. With little difficulty, I made my way to the open door and set down Sari inside. Bumblebee hopped off my back with ease and made his way inside as well. But something was wrong.

“Wait, where’s Nightlight?” Bumblebee asked. Of course! 

One of the humans, Lena, I believe her name was, came forward.

“Nightlight started climbing down the tower.” she huffed. I’m no expert on human mannerisms, but from what I knew from Cybertronian mannerisms, she seemed quite worried. 

“Did she sustain any visible damage?” I asked. From what Prime had told me, Starscream had shot Nightlight( _ point blank _ , apparently), sending her through a building, but they had been too far away to tell how damaged she was.

“Of course she did!” Lena snapped, before composing herself. “There was a hole in her chest that went all the way to a small, silver ...chamber of sorts in her chest. There was a crack in it, but it didn’t look too bad.”

I knew immediately what she was talking about, and a cold fear pulled at my spark. Her spark chamber was  _ ruptured _ and she was  _ climbing down _ a tower with the threat of  _ Starscream  _ shooting her down.

Things just became a bit more complicated.

“Bumblebee, wait here with Sari and Lena. I will escort the others down, then come back for you.” I started, but Lena quickly interrupted me.

“Wait, I have a better idea! Well, rather it was Nightlight’s idea” I looked down at her. “The reason she left was so she could get inside the building and open one of the windows because she wasn’t strong enough to break them. But  _ you _ might be strong enough to break the concrete where we are.”

“On it!” Bumblebee exclaimed, running out of the train. 

“Bumblebee, wait!” I whisper-shouted. Not even a second later, a  _ very _ loud cracking noise sounded, along with some echoes of debris landing on metal. 

I quickly grabbed the humans, much to the displeasure of Captain Fanzone, and sprinted to the newly made hole, jumping into it with ease. Bumblebee seemed to have broken into a hallway of sorts, but that didn’t matter. I carefully set them down, before jumping back up to the roof and unceremoniously shoving Bumblebee in the hole.

He let out a yelp of protest, but as soon as he was in the hole, I activated my holo-emitter to cover myself and the hole, as well as the people in it.

Barely a second later, Starscream’s appeared in the sky, his red optics set in a glare. He eyed the train with suspicion as he landed, which was surprisingly graceful, barely disturbing the concrete.

His steps shook the ground as he walked, and with each step, he got closer to the hole. I held as still as possible to not disturb the holo-gram, but it would mean nothing if Starscream touched any part of it.

He looked directly at me and started reaching with a clawed servo. I felt my vents hitch and my spark drop. The hologram wasn’t good enough.

The sound of glass shattering disrupted the tense moment. Starscream’s helm snapped around in the direction of the noise and he took off toward it. I let out a quiet vent and let my body relax. That was  _ far _ too close.

“What do we have here?” Starscream spoke aloud. I tensed again. Was the glass breaking Bumblebee? Or perhaps one of the humans?

“Let GO!” another voice shouted. My spark dropped a second time.

Nightlight.

***

I started writhing in Starscream’s grasp, but his grip was too tight.

“Trying to escape, are we?” he taunted. I gave him only a snarl in return, increasing my efforts to escape.

“Let go!” I repeated.

“Oh, are you sure about that? After all, we are  _ very _ high up and a fall from this height would be…. _ deadly _ . But, if you insist.” To my horror, his claws slowly started unfurling, one by one, until I dangled perilously from his smallest digit. I had never been so thankful for my climbing abilities.

“A clingy little sparkling, aren’t you?” he taunted again. He started wiggling his digit back and forth, throwing me around. I let out a fearful yelp as my grip came loose, but Starscream was quick to grab me by my undamaged ped. 

He then started flying.  _ Up _ .

From my upside-down position, I got a perfect view of how high up we were going. On the top of the tower, a small flash of gold appeared, but it was blocked by clouds barely a second later.

“Have a nice  _ flight _ !” That was all the warning Starscream gave me, before throwing me up in the air, and letting me plummet.

The wind whistled around me, stinging my optics and getting underneath my plating, threatening to tear it off. I tried screaming out, but the sounds were carried away by the deafening wind.

As buildings started coming back into view, a cold fear gripped my spark. Very soon, I would be nothing more than a pile of twisted, black metal.

_ Scrap. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAHAHAHA, CLIFFHANGER!
> 
> By next week's update, we *should* be done with the first episode, but no promises


	13. Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about how late this chapter was posted, but it wasn't until today that I realized that I only had half this chapter finished, only to completely change directions and go for a different ending. I really hope that it was worth it.

Unwanted fear was all I felt as Starscream flew up, disappearing amongst the clouds, with Nightlight dangling by a single ped. 

“Bumblebee, get the humans to the ground,” I shouted, the holo-gram dissipating. Bumblebee gave me a concerned look.

“What about you?” he demanded.

“I’ll meet you at the bottom, just GO!” I shouted. Surprisingly, Bumblebee followed my orders and led the humans down the hallway.

I ran to the center of the roof, and crouched, waiting for a sign. There was one of two things Starscream would do, and I was hoping it was the first. 

5 seconds passed, then 10, then 30, then an entire Earth minute. The clouds above were broken by Starscream speeding past, toward Optimus and the Allspark, but there was no sign of Nightlight. A deep feeling in my spark became worried that I was wrong, that Starscream had chosen the second option. But a black blur emerging from the hole in the clouds proved otherwise.

I sprang forward, and at the last possible second, leaped from the tower, colliding with a small black frame.

The spinning was immediate, as expected. I twisted around and used my boosters to stop the spinning, or at least slow it down. Once the spinning had stopped, I moved again so my boosters were firing at full power in the direction of the ground. I could feel Nightlight’s claws digging into my servos, but I paid it no mind.

It quickly became clear that gravity was  _ not _ on our side. Even with my boosters at full power, they weren't doing enough to slow our descent. Having already been thrown into the concrete once today, I did not want to repeat the experience, especially with Nightlight in my servos.

I looked up from the ground for a second, only to see a  _ very _ angry seeker flying directly at us.

“So you Autobots want to play dirty?” Starscream yelled. “Well, you better be ready to go all the way!” 

He blasted a null ray directly at me, nailing me in the chassis. The shot just  _ barely _ missed Nightlight. It did, however, jar the youngling from my hold and into Starscream’s.

Her optics looked at me with fear, and she reached out for me before she was snatched from the air and behind the orange-tinted glass of Starscream’s cockpit. The seeker flew off, leaving me falling.

***

The world was starting to lose focus as Prowl caught me, but the freezing and deafening wind kept me awake.

But then, I wasn’t in his grasp. Time seemed to slow down as I was grabbed by something else, and suddenly the outside world was suddenly upside down and had an orange tint. I eventually recognized it as glass. Glass from  _ Starscream’s cockpit _ .

I scrambled into an upright position, only to be knocked into the glass as Starscream took off in a certain direction. I flipped myself around, only to see the ground rapidly moving, and Bumblebee holding the Allspark half transformed into vehicle mode.

Bumblebee suddenly hurled the Allspark, and Starscream was quick to blast off after it. Just as the Allspark was about to touch the ground,  _ Prowl _ jumped out of nowhere and snatched it. He quickly threw it onto a truck, which he kicked down a hill. Said truck smashed into a fire hydrant, only for Bulkhead to try and catch the now airborne Allspark.

“I got it, I got it, I-” he quickly was cut off as Starscream snatched it. The Allspark obscured most of my view of the outside world, but I could still hear.

“Fool! Did you really think you could keep the Allspark out of the hands of-” Starscream was cut off but something, probably Bulkhead’s wrecking ball. I was slammed into the back of his cockpit, and let out a yelp. The warmth in my chest grew quite a bit, and I think it started bleeding.

“I  _ said _ I got it.” I heard Bulkhead say over Starscream’s yells. Starscream flew up once again, but none of the bots noticed. He brought both of his servos together and fired an even bigger laser than the ones before.

“ **I HAVE HAD ENOUGH TOYING WITH YOU PUNY AUTOBOTS!** ” his voice boomed. Once the laser cleared, I gasped in horror. All of the surrounding buildings had their glass shattered and the concrete was covered in thousands upon thousands of cracks. Starscream was quick to swoop down and snatch the Allspark and even quicker to get to a safe distance away from Oppy and the others.

“At last! The Allspark is  _ mine _ !” The Allspark started glowing and speaking again, but this glow and speak felt….wrong. Starscream pointed the Allspark at the city below, and a laser, even  _ bigger _ than the one he had fired earlier, erupted from the Allspark.

It  _ hurt _ . The Allspark started screaming, but it was hundreds of voices at once, completely filling my mind. The waves that were previously so calm were a raging storm of pain and sadness and protest.

Through all the chaos, only one thing was clear.

Stop.

The voices seemed to go on for an eternity as the bright light filled the cockpit, and Starscream either didn’t hear them or didn't care.

But then, they stopped. And Starscream was spinning around again. But he seemed to be….falling? My thoughts were quickly cut short by being slammed into the glass of the cockpit. I let out another hiss as more warmth filled my chest.

I carefully opened my eyes, only to find that Starscream was now on top of a building, looking down. Specifically, he was looking at  _ Oppy who had the Allspark _ .

Oppy was quick to fire one of his grapplers at another building and swung down to it, but before he could reach it, Starscream shot after him and slammed him into the building. Starscream was quick to snatch the Allspark and fly up, but Oppy wasn’t about to let him get away so easily.

Just before Starscream got out of reach, Oppy jumped from the hole they had just made and clung to Starscream’s ped and climbed up his body. He must have thrown his axe into Starscream at some point, because a loud crunch sounded, probably from Oppy removing said axe.

With Oppy on his back, Starscream didn’t notice he was about to crash into a blimp until it was too late. I was thrown around even more and when I finally righted myself, horror crept into me.

Oppy and Starscream were both tugging on the Allspark, but Oppy was flat on his back and in a very vulnerable position with Starscream's ped holding him down.

“Let  _ go _ , Autobot!” Starscream yelled.

“Never!” Oppy yelled back. “The Allspark is life!”

“Then let it end yours!” Starscream lifted one of his servos and pointed it directly at Oppy. I started panicking. Oppy wouldn't be able to dodge it since he was pinned. And I was helpless inside of…..

Wait.

_ Inside _ .

I looked around frantically, trying to find something that looked important. A cluster of cables was just at my helm level with a yellow stripe going along the length. If I remembered Ratchet’s lessons correctly, those were the main energon lines that delivered energon to the spark….

With all of my remaining strength, I bit down as hard as I could with my fangs embedding in the soft cables.

“AaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGG” Starscream was true to his name and let out a deafening scream. The taste of energon exploded into my intake and I felt Starscream’s claws grip my torso, but I only bit down harder. He ripped me from his chest and threw me back outside, with a small chunk of the tubing still in my intake. 

I started flailing my limbs, trying to latch onto  _ something _ as I started falling. Luckily, I was able to grab the steel beam on the edge of the massive billboard sign, but I was still dangling from much higher up than I wanted to.

A familiar humming noise sounded, and a shockwave was quick to follow. I was filled up, up,  _ up _ with so much energy I felt like I might burst. A bright light filled my vision, as did the many “voices” of the Allspark. Then the explosion happened.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


The world came back blurry with a loud ringing in my audials. Everything felt too far away, yet all to close at the same time. I could feel my servo hanging onto something, but it didn’t feel quite real.

A groan to my right informed me that I wasn’t alone. I looked over, only to see a familiar face. 

Oppy.

He was covered from helm to ped in cracks and dents, and he was barely hanging onto the Allspark, while his other servo was holding his axe which kept him anchored up.

“Oppy….” I whispered. My mouth still tasted of energon as I spoke.

Oppy snapped his helm in my direction.

“Nightlight,” he said. He sounded so surprised, but also so incredibly scared. I wonder why?

“S-sweetspark.” he started. I looked at him with a sleepy expression. When did I look away? My optics kept drifting shut and the world kept fading in and out.

“I-I need you to try and climb over to me. Can you do that for me, Nightlight?” he asked. I tried, but my servos refused to move.

“I...I’m so tired Oppy…..can…..can I just…..” the world started drifting even more. My peds and servos felt really cold.

“NO!” Oppy suddenly shouted. “No….Sweetspark, please! Stay awake for a little longer.” A ripping sound started, and I dropped down a bit.

“....Oppy?” I asked. The warmth in my chest was starting to leave as well.

“I don’t think I can.”

And then I fell.

I don’t think people understand what death is really like. There are all these fears that it's painful, or scary, or very empty….but they got it all wrong.

It was strangely peaceful and I had never felt so calm before. Not even on the Orion with the Allspark, before Megatron attacked.

It was almost completely white in this magical place. There was also a light. It was so much like the Allspark. It had some whispers, but it was like they were wrapping me up with a blanket of safety. It was calling to me, begging me to come closer. But….I didn’t.

I couldn’t help but feel like I was missing something. Like there was something I had forgotten.

Then I saw a shape. It kinda looked like me…..actually it looked a  _ lot _ like me….if I was much bigger and a being of pure light.

“Go back.” the being whispered. Gosh, they even  _ sounded _ like me.

“What do you mean?” I asked. They walked closer and kneeled down to me.

“They need you,” it whispered.

“Who?”

“Them.” the being pointed at a part of the white void where a small circle showed something outside. It was a group of five other bots and a tiny creature, about the size I was. They were surrounding a small, black shape that had made a crater in the ground. All of them were either shouting, crying, or just looking sad. But….they all felt so familiar.

“Who are they?” I asked.

“Your family.” the being responded. “My family. Our family.”

“What?” I looked up at them. They had a look of longing as they stared at the group, specifically at the red and blue one. That one also seemed to be the most distressed over the black shape.

“You don’t remember. And you probably won't for a long time,” they spoke. “Look at the small creature.”

They pointed at the small being. It was clambering over to the black shape with something held in their hands and a determined look on their face.

“She’s going to try and use her key to revive you, but only you can decide to make it work.” They put one servo on my shoulder and I looked up at them.

“You can choose whether to stay or go. But once you do, you cannot change that decision.”

Part of me wanted to stay. This place felt...it felt like home somehow. It was safe and light, and there was the light being so I wouldn’t be alone.

I looked back at the group. The creature was just about to put the key into the black thing’s chassis.

But….another part of me yearned to go back. For what reason, I can’t say for certain. But….the group. If what the being said was true and they were my family….they seemed to care a lot about me.

I looked back up to them and said five words that changed everything.

“I want to go back.”

The world went hazy once again, and the pure white of the room faded to pitch black. The glowy light vanished, as did the light being. I suddenly felt so incredibly _tired_ , like I had just carried Bulkhead across all of Cybertron. I could hear rocks and glass being crushed and moved, and heard….sobbing?

I hesitantly opened my optics, only to see a blurry, shadowy figure above me.

“Is this...the Well of Allsparks?” I asked. Small wet tears dripped onto my faceplate.

“No….it’s Detroit.” the blurry figure wrapped themselves around me and pulled me into a hug. After the haziness faded, I registered that it was Sari hugging me. I quickly reciprocated the hug, letting the girl sob into my neck.

I quickly felt myself and Sari be lifted up off the ground into someone else’s arms. I looked up and saw that Oppy was the bot who did it. His frame was shaking, and I could see some coolant dripping from his optics. I relaxed once more. More bots joined the hug that seemed to center around me, even Prowl!

That was the moment when I realized that without a doubt, I had made the right decision.

I was with my family. And nothing would take me away ever again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We have FINALLY reached the end of episode one and trust me, stuffs gets crazy


	14. Birds and Bonding

“Our new home is coming together nicely.” Oppy commented. He and Bumblebee were carefully setting down the massive TV that Sari had gotten us while Ratchet was hooking it up with cables to make it work.

“Right here.” I told Bulkhead. Meanwhile, the two of us were trying to find anything that could be used as at least a  _ semblance _ of furniture. So far we’d found a piece of broken concrete to use as a couch, a metal slab propped up by broken steel beams as a table, and some extra road signs that were lying around to use as wall decorations.

The ground shook as Bulkhead put down the “couch”, but luckily didn’t result in the floor caving under the weight. 

“If I had my way we’d never leave.” Ratchet told Oppy. I looked over at him, slightly snickering at how while Oppy could lift the giant television with ease, Bumblebee was physically struggling.

“It’s not safe out there.” Ratchet continued. “They’re always  _ watching _ .  _ Waiting _ .”

“The Decepticons?” Oppy asked.

“No, those annoying  _ camera bots _ !” Just then, Ratchet plugged in the last cable and the television snapped to life. It was a news report, and Oppy was dead centre. He had a funny looking human caught in his grapplers, and said human was trying their darndest to escape. At least now I know where Oppy disappeared to last night.

“What?!?” Bumblebee exclaimed. “No way! Being a star  _ rocks _ ! If the titanium alloy fits,  _ wear it _ . And, I make it look  _ good _ .” I couldn’t help but giggle.

“You guys got it easy.” Bulkhead commented. I turned back over to him. It seemed like in the time I wasn't paying attention, he had grabbed some tires and seemed to be making a smaller seat, fitting someone around Bumblebee’s size. “All people want me to do is break stuff. I gotta be sensitive side too yah know.”

The big green bot stood up for a second and thought. “Though, breaking stuff is kinda fun.”

I ran over to Oppy and started climbing up his peds. I’d done it enough times so that even without climbing abilities I would have been able to reach his shoulders. Oppy let out a small laugh as I clambered up.

“Either way, there’s a lot to learn about this planet. So we’ll just have to roll with it.”

A loud noise sounded from the open skylight, and a very angry Prowl dropped in. He was grumbling things as he marched off into the hallway, he usually silent steps clanging loudly.

“I guess Prowl didn’t get the memo about “rolling with it.”” Bumblebee commented. Optimus frowned and followed Prowl down the hallway. I slightly bounced on his shoulder as he walked, but was mostly secure.

He quickly reached Prowl’s door and punched in the code. Inside, Prowl was facing the ginormous tree that had grown in the room, taking out most of the ceiling with it. Bird calls and sunlight filled the room, giving it a peaceful feeling.

“Prowl, got a nano-click?” Oppy asked. He had to duck slightly to enter the room, but Prowl didn’t answer.

“Everything okay?” Oppy asked again. “I mean, you wanna talk?”

“No.” Prowl suddenly asked, slightly startling Oppy. Oppy looked around the room, specifically at the lack of roof.

“Yah know you could have another room. One with a  _ roof _ .”

“I...like  _ this _ room.” Prowl started. “All this organic life, this…. _ nature _ . It refuses to be contained. Such a force of  _ will _ .” His tone was wistful, almost as if he wanted to be a part of it. 

“But everyone here is blind to it.” he continued. “They all rush to see everything, but never sit still long enough to experience what is around them.” a tiny bird landed on the branch in front of Prowl. He took slow and careful steps toward it.

“Just this morning, I observed one organic creature stalk another, with such grace...such  _ stillness _ .” His servos were slowly closing around the bird.

Bumblebee suddenly came up from underneath Prowl knocking him back and scaring away the bird. I jumped back, but luckily Oppy caught me before I fell off his shoulder. How Bumblebee was both quiet and stealthy enough to not only sneak into the room, but on  _ Prowl _ of all bots, will forever allude me.

“Anyone else smell fried circuitry around here?” I sniffed the air, but didn’t smell anything. “Get it?  _ Fried Circuty _ ?” he let out a laugh. “As in yours!”

I was puzzled. Was it an inside joke?

“Hello?” Bumblebee started knocking on Prowl's helm. “A-anybot home?” The black and gold ninja bot shot up into the tree growling, leaving a confused Bumblebee.

“What? What’s I say?” Bumblebee looked up to where the ninja had disappeared. Prowl didn’t answer. Oppy let out a sigh.

“C’mon Bumblebee, let’s go help the others finish cleaning up.” Oppy said. Bumblebee let out a groan, but still headed back to the main room. Oppy was just about to walk out of the room, before I jumped off his shoulders. Oppy turned around and gave me a look.

“Nightlight?” he asked.

“Imma stay here. I wanna say something to Prowl.” Oppy gave me a cautious look.

“Alright….but if you feel like anything’s wrong, or if you start hurting, go to Ratchet immediately, okay?” I let out an annoyed groan.

“I know, Oppy, I promise.” I said. Ever since I woke up, Ratchet and Oppy had barely let me leave their sights. In the past 24 hours, Ratchet had scanned me a total of 32 times and for at least half of that time had Oppy carry me everywhere! I like being carried as much as the next bot, but even I have to say it was “a bit overkill” as Sari worded it. I’m not a newspark!

Oppy gave me a final worried glance before leaving the room. I turned my attention back toward the tree. More importantly, to where Prowl had vanished.

Now or never, as the humans say.

Climbing the tree was no real difficulty. The various branches and the rough texture of the trunk made it easy. What was difficult,however, was not disturbing the wildlife in the tree. Namely, the birds, squirrels, flowers and occasional butterflies.

Also, I gravely underestimated the  _ size _ of the tree. I knew it was big, but  _ this _ was  _ ridiculous _ . 

“Do you need help?” Prowl’s helm suddenly appeared from a cluster of leaves above me. I let out a yelp and started flailing my servos in an attempt to regain balance. Once I did, I looked up at him to see a ghost of a smirk on his face.

“No, I got it.” I responded, returning to my climb.

“So what brings you here?” Prowl’s entire frame emerged from the tree and landed on the branch just to my left.

“Well, the first reason is that I wanted to climb your tree and see the view.” I said, climbing the tree even further, sometimes jumping to reach a better point. Prowl silently joined me, keeping close and not going ahead, even though he very easily could have.

“And the second?” he asked. I jumped even further up the tree. The branches were becoming flimsier and I had to mostly rely on the trunk for support. We must be reaching the top.

“I never got a chance to thank you.” I said.

“What?”

“When Starscream dropped me.” I elaborated. “You caught me.” It was much lighter this high up in the tree, with the sunlight having more place to since through.

“You’re welcome.” Prowl answered. His pedsteps were light and quiet, much like he usually was.

Just then, my helm poked through the top of the tree. The sun was shining bright above and bird song came from trees in the surrounding area. A gentle breeze rustled the leaves. 

I let out a small gasp at the view. A water canal flowed nearby with plant growing, and some of the roofs nearby had tiny gardens.

“Wonderful, isn’t it.” Prowl asked, his frame coming forth from the leaves.

“Yeah, it is.” I couldn’t tear my optics away from the view. In the far distance, I could see parts of the lake. A chirp broke my focus from the surrounding land.

I turned my helm to see a tiny gold-colored bird had landed on the branch directly next to me. The bird chirped a few times and started hopping in my direction. I held perfectly still as to not disturb it.

The bird flapped up a little, before it finally landed on my helm. I let out a small giggle, but the bird stayed in place, seemingly content with it’s perch.

“I think it likes me.” I commented. A tiny smile split across Prow’s intake.

“So it does.”

“: _ Nightlight! _ :” My comm link pinged. It was…..Sari?

“: _ Sari? How’d you get my comm link? _ :” I asked.....now that I'm thinking about it how did she even get onto the same _channel_ as me? She didn't have any Cybertronian technology......did she?

“: _ My key. Me and Tommy are just outside. _ :” I got excited. Sari was going to have something called a “Slumber Party” with us, and Lena said and Tommy could join too.

“: _ I’m on my way! _ :” I gently shook my helm to get the bird to fly away. I turned to Prowl.

“Tommy and Sari are here, and Imma go meet them.” I said. “It was nice talking to you Prowl.”

“Goodbye, Nightlight.” he said. I ducked back down into the tree, barely being able to contain my excitement. This was gonna be the best night ever!


	15. Slumber Party

“Right servo on red!” Bee commanded, looking up from the spinner. I looked around, trying to find the space. I was contorted in ways that I never thought possible, but luckily the red spot was very close. 

Tommy had brought some more human games for us to play, one of them being called “Twister.” It consisted of a plastic mat with various colored dots, and someone would spin a spinner to see which limbs went on which dots. Sadly, it was too small for the other bots, so only Tommy, Sari and I could play.

“So this is some kind of training exercise to boost...dexterity?” Oppy asked. Sari let out a snicker from her position. Tommy was over both of us, with his legs bent over Sari’s left arm and leg. I was in an almost upside-down position near Tommy’s head, with his arms over my chest. If Tommy fell, both of us would be taken out.

“It’s a game. For _fun_!” Sari commented.

“Right foot on green!” Bee commented. I looked around and my face fell. All of the green spots close to me were taken. Tommy let out a laugh.

“Hah! You’re gonna fall~!” he commented. 

“Not yet I’m not!” I reached as far as I could to the available green dot. 

Good news was, I made it! Bad news…..I knocked into Sari and Tommy and they both fell on me. In our tiny pile, we all erupted with laughter.

“Guess we-” I broke off into a fit of giggles. “Guess we all lose!”

“Yeah, guess you’re right,” Tommy commented, carefully picking himself up from the top of the pile. Sari was next, and then I stood up.

“Alright you three, it’s almost time to go to berth…..bed. To _bed_.” Oppy corrected himself. Earth terms were kinda weird, but we were getting the hang of it.

I looked outside the shattered windows and Oppy was right. The sun had set and the sky was a deep indigo. 

“Oh, oh, how about we tell scary stories before we go to bed!” Tommy suggested. Sari made an evil-looking smile.

“I have the _perfect_ story.” she ran over to her bag and pulled out a flashlight. “Optimus, can you turn off the lights?”

Oppy nodded and walked over to the human-sized light switch and flicked it off. It suddenly became much darker, but Sari’s flashlight plus everyone’s glowing optics kept things mostly visible. 

“Everyone, gather round,” Sari said. She moved the flashlight so it was directly under her face, casting long shadows on it. The other bots all gathered in a circle around her, with me and Tommy sitting the closest.

“This is the story of The Scarecrow….”

***

“They _smashed_ the pumpkin’s head with a bat and left the scarecrow’s body lying in the field,” Sari said. Her voice had lowered from when she had started telling the story, and it was much darker outside.

“And the point of this story is….?” Ratchet interrupted. 

“Shush!" I sent him a small glare. I wanted to find out what happened next!

“Well, I’m not scared.” Bumblebee let out some nervous laughter.

“Oh, just wait,” Sari said. “Anyway,” she cleared her throat.

“That night, Josh was awoken by a scratching and scraping at his door.” A loud metallic screech sounded. Bumblebee jumped.

“Did you guys hear that?!?” he exclaimed, but Sari continued.

“Josh got out of bed and opened the door, only to see the scarecrow standing there. But it had a new head….. _Harold’s_ head. Josh was just about to scream when the Scarecrow reached out and-”

Bumblebee let out an audio shattering screech. My helm snapped in his direction, but there wasn’t a giant scarecrow with the face on some poor human. It was only one of the giant claws from the assembly line….and it had clamped onto Bumblebee’s back, lifting him into the air. 

Sari let out a small snicker. Bumblebee was flailing like crazy as he tried to get the claw off, but that only made Sari laugh harder.

“You should’ve seen your face!” she exclaimed. She plugged her key into the machine, and it abruptly dropped him to the ground.

“Sari, how are you doing that?” Oppy asked.

“It’s my key. It doesn’t just fix Autobots. I can do all kinds of other stuff with it too!” she explained. The lights suddenly turned on, before turning off again. The quiet hum of machinery echoed in the previously silent room.

“Um, that wasn’t me,” Sari commented. The assembly line suddenly came to life, with purple lasers shining from the ceiling. A loud thudding came from a giant slab of metal being slammed into the conveyor, but there were also the sounds of the assembly claws moving around.

But then, gunshots interrupted the machinery sounds. I looked down the assembly line to see one of the machines firing bolts and nails like bullets.

“Take cover!” Ratchet yelled, but he and Bumblebee were quickly grabbed by a claw around their necks and hurled into the wall.

“What’s happening!?!” Bumblebee exclaimed.

“Who knows! Let’s just run!” Tommy shouted. He roughly grabbed me and Sari’s hands and started trying to pull us away from the machine. One of the nail-bolt-bullet machines started firing at us again, but I was quick to pull the other two away from it. I looked around trying to find a safe place for us to hide.

But…..suddenly the room changed. It wasn’t the broken down assembly warehouse, but instead a dark, metal-walled corridor with purple lights.

“BEGIN.” A voice said. The voice sounded….empty. Suddenly, the corridor was filled with hurdles and walls, and various other obstacles while parts of the walls changed to reveal laser blasters. But at the far end of the hallway was a black door. 

_The exit_ . My mind whispered. It was the way out. The way to _safety_.

My frame instantly started running, the weights attached to my servos doing little to slow me down. The lasers started firing but I dodged them with a practiced ease. The obstacles were just as easy to dodge and were amazing cover from the lasers.

_Was this really the best he could do?_

The exit was growing closer, and the weights were getting heavier.

_It wasn’t much different from yesterday’s training._

The door was right there. Safety was just in front of me.

_It seems like Shockwave’s losing his touch._

“NIGHTLIGHT!” The weights….wait…..those weren’t weights…..that was Tommy and Sari…..was that…..was that not real?....was it a trick or….

I was snapped out of my thoughts by a sharp pinch on my back. In an instant, I flung Tommy and Sari into the doorway. Not even a second later, I was forcefully yanked back by one of the assembly line claws.

The world flashed again, and now I was in a similar room to the hallway, but I wasn’t alone. There was a bot standing in front of me with a very annoyed look on his face…..but….the annoyance…..it wasn’t real.

“This little _glitch_ broke into my habsuite!” Another voice yelled. I looked up and saw a bot. They were most orange and purple, plus they looked very mad. They were holding me by the back of my armor and had me lifted off the ground.

“And?” The annoyed-but-not-really bot said. 

“And I want you to do something about it!” The bot screeched. “She’s _your_ responsibility!”

I couldn’t help but roll my optics. Quiver never backed down from a fight, especially not from a low-ranking lieutenant like Wrangle.

“You’re right, she _is_ .” Quiver suddenly made his height much more noticeable, standing fully upright and towering over Wrangle. “And I say that she did her job _well_.”

He let out a sputter. “Job?!?”

“Yes. Shockwave assigned her a task. To sneak into a habsuite of his choosing and take something. She succeeded. After all, you didn’t notice she had taken it until Zephyr pointed it out, did you?”

Wrangle stuttered, trying to think of a comeback. But he failed.

“I didn’t think so.” Quiver glared. “Now, I must return her to Shockwave. He is wanting to run more tests. _Good day_ , Lieutenant.” Quiver smoothly grabbed me from Wrangle’s servos and placed me back on the ground. With a gentle nudge, he directed me down the hallway that led to Shockwave’s lab and, by extension, my room.

As soon as the door closed, he exploded. Well…..he Quiver-style exploded.

“ _What_ were you _thinking_ ?!?” he demanded. “Do you have _any idea_ how _risky_ what you did was?!?” I couldn't help but droop slightly.

“Sorry, Quiver,” I muttered. He let out a groan and pinched the bridge between his optics. The metal there was slightly worn inward from how many times he’d done it.

“Primus sake,” he whispered. He looked at me again, but now he looked scared and sad. He kneeled down to my level and gently grabbed my shoulders, careful to not let his claws hurt me. 

“You can’t do things like that, understand? It’s my duty to keep you safe….but even I can’t protect you from Shockwave, or Primus forbid, Megatron. Okay?”

I met his optics with shame. It was funny. The only bots we trusted to be emotionally vulnerable with were each other, and we were also the only bots who could inspire such deep feelings in the first place.

“Okay...” I said. But then I smirked and added, “, you big pin cushion.”

He let out a gasp of mock offense. “How _dare_ you. And here I thought you cared.” With a play roar, he scooped me up and threw me over his shoulder, spinning me around. I let out a shriek of happiness before he threw me onto my berth in the corner.

“So, what’d you take anyway?” he asked, sitting down next to me. I opened my subspace and pulled out a tiny gem. It was dark orange and in an oval-ish shape. It was no secret that Wrangle liked collecting strange rocks and shiny things, so I just took the one closest to the vent.

“It’s called Orange Carnelian,” I said proudly. After I took it, I used a crystallography datapad to identify it.

Quiver picked it up gently, holding it up to the light.

“Well, it’s very pretty,” he said, he was about to give it back before I pushed it back into his servos.

“I want you to have it!” I said. Quiver looked at me incredulously, before laughing a little.

“I-I don’t know what to say. But I will keep it with me. _Always_.” To prove his point, he tucked it away into his subspace.

“Now, it’s time for you to recharge. You have to get up early tomorrow for some more tests.”

I made a pout but went under the blanket that Shockwave had “gifted” me a while back. Both me and Quiver knew it was just used to track my vitals while I rechanged after I became too big for the machine….and after a certain amount of complaining about how uncomfortable it was.

Quiver turned off the lights, leaving only our red optics glowing in the darkness.

“Good night….. my little Pitch………………”

***

Hard concrete was what I woke up to…..or did I even wake up at all…..was it a dream? Was this even….real?

I carefully picked myself up off the floor.

“NIGHTLIGHT!” two tiny bodies slammed into me, knocking me back down. My skid plate ached. Nope, definitely not a dream!

“I’m fine guys, really!” I said. The two looked unconvinced, but it was interrupted by Oppy. 

“The fuel tanks!” he shouted. “They’re gonna blow!”

As it turns out, the warehouse was _on fire_!

Prowl(when did _he_ get here?!?) quickly threw one of his shurikens at the brake, knocking the breached fuel tank off the stand. Oppy grabbed it with his grapplers to bring it into the air, while Bulkhead punched it up, with Ratchet giving it an extra boost to make sure it got away. It smashed through the window, and the oil was trailing behind it.

Through the glass, I could see it explode into a fireball with a loud _BANG!_ All of us stared at the newly made hole, unsure of what to say.

“So, if my key _didn’t_ do this, then what did?” Sari asked.

“Whatever it was, it was smart enough to merge the security motion sensors with the assembly line.” Ratchet imputed.

“I’ll tell my mom in the morning. Maybe she could check the console?” Tommy offered. We all looked at the console, which was a mess of wires and smoke. “At least what’s left of it.”

“Good idea, Tommy.” Oppy praised. “For now, let’s try to settle in for the night.”

I noticed Prowl starting to sneak off, but I quickly grabbed his ped.

“Could you stay?” I asked. “Please.” He wasn’t looking convinced, so I deployed the universe’s most dangerous weapons. The Cyber Pup Optics.

It was too much to the ninja, as he let out a vent before giving a small nod.

“Yay!” I exclaimed, before running back to the group. 

Maybe tonight would work out after all.

***

Megatron’s rage shook the building. Light bulbs exploded, doors slammed shut in people’s faces, and countless other machines were going haywire.

And Megatron enjoyed it.

He watched through the security cameras as the humans scrambled, trying to avoid getting doused by scalding hot coffee or getting run over by a rogue vacuum cleaner or trying to shield themselves from the sprinkler system that had suddenly turned on.

Without a body of his own, there was little he could do to vent his frustrations, and this didn’t even come close to scratching the surface of his rage. How much he wished that he could just _squish_ each and every human under his peds, but he lacked peds to do so.

He turned his attention back to the small drone he had sent to the Autobot base. It was by sheer chance that the others hadn’t noticed his drone, another mistake they had made. All of the Autobots appeared to be in recharge in various positions around the room. Except _one_.

The smallest Autobot, barely old enough to be considered a youngling. Their blue optics pierced the darkness as they stared at the ceiling, seemingly deep in thought.

The youngling appeared to be lying atop one of the larger Autobots chassis. He was red and blue…. the one who had _defeated_ him….. but Megatron couldn’t for the spark of him remember his designation. He was a Prime, that was certain, but his designation eluded him.

Optimistic? Optronix? Opposition? Eh, something along those lines.

Megatron’s attention was on the youngling. She was carefully making her way off of the Prime’s chassis and was making her way into the hallway. Her ped steps were shockingly quiet, barely making a sound as she walked.

“Where are you off to?” Megatron muttered to himself. The drone was quick to follow.

The youngling, it seemed, was far more stealthy than he suspected, as the moment he rounded the corner, she pounced. The drone’s field of view was mostly obscured by the youngling’s claws as she made a tiny corral around the drone, trapping it inside.

This wasn’t good. She could very easily destroy the drone, or even worse, show it to the other Autobots, or even-

“Hey, hey. Calm down. I’m not gonna hurt you.” The youngling soothed. Her voice was very quiet, in an almost calming manner.

...or she could try to befriend the drone.

“My name’s Nightlight. Are you lost?” So the youngling had a name.

“Well, don't worry. Imma keep you safe. Would you like that?” the youngling continued.

This...this was good. Great, in fact. This youngling was convinced that the drone was nothing more than a lost pet. He could use this to his advantage.

He manipulated the bot to run in a little circle, imitating excitement. The youngling smiled and picked up the drone.

“You’re gonna need a name, so how about….Bolt!” It was a trivial name, but that was to be expected from a youngling.

The youngling brought the done in for a hug.

“Imma take good care of you,” she said, cradling it close to her chassis.

If Megatron had an intake, he would have smirked.

This was going to be interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's going on with Nightlight? Who's Quiver? And what has Megatron planned? All will be revealed.....eventually


	16. Machine vs.....Man?

Tommy was practically bouncing in his seat with excitement. Apparently Bumblebee and Sari got an invitation from the dude with glasses and a big grey coat to fight something. And it was going to be on TV!

It was something that we kinda needed. After this morning, when Lena came to check out the control panel, she said that other than the two small holes she found, there wasn’t anything that could lead to what caused the malfunction. That put a big dent in everyone’s mood. 

Oppy had decided to take the rest of the team on a scouting mission around Detroit, mostly to get a feel for the city, and wouldn’t be back till later tonight, so until then, Bumblebee was watching us.

“I can’t believe you’re going to be fighting in  _ the _ Diamond Arena!” he said.

“What’s so important about it?” I asked, giving him a questioning look.

“I’ve always wanted to go, and now I’m going to be right up front!” he said, giving me the biggest, brightest smile I’d seen on him.

“Well, you’d better be ready. Cuz I’m gonna kick this guy’s tailpipe.” Bumblebee chimed in. I let out a giggle.

“We’re here!” Tommy said, pressing his face against the window. I let out a gasp of awe.

The stadium was  _ massive _ . And it lived up to its name. Diamond shapes decorated parts of the outside, and a soft blue was used to color them. The rest of the building was in light and dark greys, with some reddish pillars holding up the doorway.

“C’mon. It’s almost time for the fight.” Sari pointed out. Bumblebee was quick to drive around to the back of the arena when a man in a white suit and glasses was standing. He had a weird hairstyle and a tiny stick in his mouth.

The three of us jumped out of Bumblebee’s alt mode, and he transformed.

“I assume you must be a Bumblebee.” the man said. I didn’t like his voice. It was….. well the only thing I could think of to describe it would be  _ oily _ .

“Yep! And I’m ready to kick some skid plate!” he said. The man gave a weird smile.

“We’ll see about that.” He gestured to the door. “Right this way.”

The four of us entered, only to be in complete awe of the room we stood in. Well, "room" isn’t exactly the right word.

The inside of the stadium seemed even bigger than it was on the outside. In the dark light, I could see hundreds of thousands of humans in the stands, and the sound was a cacophony of cheering.

“Woah….” Tommy said, spinning in a circle to take in the sheer size of the arena. The four of us took our places at one corner of the room.

But….something felt off. Like we were being  _ watched _ . It sounded silly, considering there were literally thousands of humans watching…..but still. I felt a tingling feeling creeping up my ped, but when I reached down to scratch it, nothing was there.  _ Strange _ .

A spotlight appeared in the middle of the room, revealing a wrestling ring. Microphone feedback screeched loudly, before clearing. 

“Do you ever dream of being thinner?” A voice asked. I recognized it as the oily man who allowed us to enter. He was standing in the center of the spotlight.

“Taller? Faster? Or even stronger?” he continued. “Well, these people did.” he gestured at nothing…...why did he?

“And they turned their dreams into reality!” Disco music started playing out of speakers, but his voice was still heard. 

“And you can do that too with my,” he paused for dramatic effect. “Bio-chemical Makeover!”

This was….honestly very boring. He sounded a lot like those really cheesy commercials that played in the middle of the cartoons Tommy and Sari showed me this morning.

“Hi there, I’m Prometheus Black and  _ I _ can transform  _ you _ ,” he said. I couldn’t help but snicker. Now he  _ really _ sounded like one of those commercials.

“Are you still not convinced?” he asked. “Well then you better watch one of my  _ greatest _ bio-enhance successes stories in action!” the crowd erupted in cheers and screaming.

“You see them every day. They clean your house, teach your children, and they  _ take _ your jobs.” he started. I frowned. I didn’t like where this was going. “But  _ tonight _ , man will  _ triumph _ over machine in a no-holds-barred  _ fight _ . To the  _ finish _ .”

Okay, no I  _ really _ didn’t like this. Not only was Bumblebee going to fight a  _ human _ , but he could possibly get really, really,  _ really _ hurt. I could practically  _ hear _ Ratchet ranting about how stupid this was.

“Representing the machines, I give you  _ BUMBLEBEE _ ~!” Prometheus said. Bumblebee threw off the giant white cloth that he had somehow put on, putting his servos out in a strong pose.

“‘EY! Good evening Detroit!” Bumblebee yelled.

Tommy, Sari, and I started cheering and clapping, but it seemed like not a lot of humans wanted Bee to win. Bumblebee noticed the lack of support as well and looked back at us. Sari just shrugged.

“And representing the human race, I give you  _ Cyrus the Colossus Brute _ ~”

I looked at the other corner, only to see a very small, very frail and very grey looking human. He had green goggles on his face and two grey things coming out of his back. He looked as though he would collapse at any minute.

“Good luck,” Prometheus said. “And may the best  _ man _ win.” 

Bumblebee walked closer to the….human? I guess he technically was one. The “human” was barely as tall as Bumblebee’s waist.

Bumblebee whispered something to the human, but that just seemed to upset him.

The fighting bell dinged, and the grey things raised from Cyrus’s back and slammed back in, creating a jot of green lightning. Cyrus seemed to grow a little bit. The cylinder slammed in again, and again, and again. Each time they did, Cyrus grew larger and larger, until he  _ towered  _ over Bumblebee.

“Who’s the  _ little guy _ now?” he asked. His voice was deep and rumbly.

Cyrus picked up Bumblebee by his helm and threw him into the rubber barriers, and when he bounced back, socked him right in the chin. Bumblebee slammed to the ground with a thunderous thud, and the crowd  _ cheered _ . But Cyrus didn't let up, and he was quickly on top of Bumblebee, throwing him, punching him, and Bee couldn't do a single thing. 

“This isn’t good.”I heard Tommy murmur. I looked over to his horror-stricken face staring at what was before him. It seemed like this wasn’t how he expected his first trip to Diamond Stadium to go.

Cyrus threw him into the ground, then picked Bumblebee up from the floor and held him over his head, before chucking him into the ground yet again. Bumblebee bounced and became tangled in the rubber barriers. Cyrus lumbered over to Bee’s trapped form, seeming just that much bigger.

Cyrus lifted a single foot and started  _ stomping _ on Bumblebee’s chassis. The yellow metal was slowing curving inward, with large cracks leaking oil and energon. With a final stomp, the rubber barriers broke and Bumblebee tumbled to the floor, letting out a pain-filled cry.

“BUMBLEBEE!” the three of us shouted, rushing to his side. He didn’t look good. His chassis was almost completely caved in, and the rest of his body was covered in dents and a small puddle of oil was starting to form.

“Sari, use your key!” Tommy shouted.

“I can’t!” she shouted back. I looked up to see her trying to open the hatch on Bumblebee’s helm, but the metal was twisted and wouldn’t open.

Cyrus jumped down from the arena, letting out a guttural yell from above Bumblebee. Bumblebee looked up at the massive human with a terror I had never seen from the yellow minibot before. But then….

The world fuzzed for a second, and a new bot was standing in Cyrus’s place. There was nothing special about them, just brown plating and red optics. But it was who Bumblebee was replaced by that shocked me. 

In Bumblebee’s place was a bigger bot with maroon plating with green and grey accents. A ridge of spikes came out of his helm, with the larger ones broken. Part of his helm was curved inward, stabbing his cheek, and he had an ugly gash over one optic, forcing it shut.

My spark beat grew loud in my audials, drowning out the jeering of the crowd.

_ He was hurt. _

Cyrus raised his fist into the air, preparing to deal the final blow

_ I needed to protect him. _

My spark was deafening as Sari and Tommy were screaming at me to run.

_ I won’t let Quiver get hurt again. _

“STOP!” I screamed, throwing myself in front of Bumblebee. “You won! You don’t need to fight anymore!”

The crowd went silent.

“Who said winning mattered?” Cyrus growled. I took a step back, before standing my ground and glaring at him. I don’t know where this new sense of bravery came from, but I wasn’t complaining.

“You don’t have to fight him.” I snarled back, being sure to make my fangs visible. It wasn’t much, but it was the only thing I had. Other than my claws, at least.

“Guess I’ll just have to beat you to get to him,” he said, swinging his arm at me.

_ Roll _

I heard a voice I didn’t recognize, but I was quick to follow it’s instructions. I rolled to the side, dodging the punch. He swung at me again, this time faster.

_ Jump _

And so I did.

“Hold still!” he shouted. He was getting angrier, and his attacks were getting more and more erratic, but the little voice never stopped. Every time it gave me the right instruction to dodge when he attacked.

_ Jump on his back _

That was a new one, but I was in too deep to stop listening to the voice. Once on his back, I quickly realized why I was there.

The two cylinder things.

If I could destroy them, then maybe Cyrus will shrink back down!

I started clawing at them, but it was growing more difficult as Cyrus figured out what I was doing. He started thrashing side to side, throwing me off balance.

Then the cylinders started crackling.

_ Ju- _

The voice was cut off as the cylinders slammed back in, creating an explosion of green lightning. I heard a quiet screech as I was thrown off his back. The energy overloaded my circuits, causing multiple warnings to flash in my HUD.

I went flying off his back and crashed into the ground. Cyrus lumbered over to me and reached for me. I waited for the voice’s advice…..but it never came.

Cyrus’s hand wrapped around my entire body and lifted me up until I was at his eye level. Then he started  _ squeezing _ .

The pressure was growing to be too much, and I could feel my chassis starting to creak and bend. 

I didn’t need a voice to know what to do next.

I bit down on his hand as hard as I could.

Cyrus let out a pain-filled roar, before chucking me at the wall. The force was so great that I went through it, and landed in the parking lot.

I let out a groan and looked up, only to see that Cyrus had  _ followed me _ to the parking lot. He had a dumpster held over his head and was preparing to throw it down on me.

I didn’t wait for the voice this time and jumped out of the way, and barely a second later the dumpster landed where I just was.

But Cyrus wasn’t done. He grabbed me by ped and hurled me at a nearby truck. The glass shattered upon impact and the shards lodged themselves under my plating.

But I couldn’t rest. I saw Cyrus hurl a car, and I rolled off the truck before it could crush me. The two exploded upon impact, knocking me into a third car.

I let out a groan of pain. I couldn’t keep going on like this. Sooner or later, Cyrus was gonna catch up with me. I can’t do it alone.

Wait….I’m not alone.

: _ OPPY! _ : I yelled into my commlink.

: _ Nightlight? What’s wrong. We’re on our way back right now, so- _ : he started, but I cut him off.

: _ HELP! DIAMOND STADIUM! BEE’S DOWN _ : I yelled again.

: _ Woah, Woah, Nightlight slow down! What’s happening? _ : he asked.

: _ NO TIME! HELP! AND BE CAREFUL OF- _ : I didn’t have time to finish, as I was cut off by a shadow appearing above me. I let out a scream before the car crashed down.

The world around me became hazy with black and fire. But, there was a small purple-ish shape.

“ _ I will help, but you must let me _ ,” it said. It sounded like the voice from the arena, the one that was helping me fight Cyrus.

In my injured, half-conscious state, I gave a small nod. I felt a small pin-prick on my digit before everything went black.

***

Optimus wasn’t sure what he was expecting when he received Nightlight's distress call. Bumblebee doing something dangerous and it going wrong was at the top of that list, however.

At the bottom of that list was what was happening when he rolled into the(mostly destroyed) parking lot.

Nightlight was currently standing in front of a giant…..organic? It was hard to tell. The “organic” was as big as Bulkhead, and Nightlight was…..beating it?

Optimus doubled back on what was in front of him. The organic was scrambling around, trying to catch Nightlight, but she was too fast for him to catch. She was actually too fast for any of the bots to get a good look at her. 

She was darting all around the organic’s feet, occasionally making blows to his ankles and knees. There were several bite and claw marks covering them already, so it was clear she had been at it for a while.

“Optimus!” Optimus looked down to see Sari and Tommy sprinting over to them.

“Sari, Tommy, what’s happening?” he asked, keeping his tone calm, even though he was  _ far  _ from it.

“Its Bee!” Tommy yelled. “He’s hurt really bad.” Optimus nodded.

“Ratchet, go with Tommy and Sari. Find Bumblebee. Bulkhead, Prowl, you’re with me.”

The group nodded and immediately jumped into action. 

“Why don’t you pick on someone your own size!” Bulkhead yelled as he body-slammed the organic away from Nightlight. But the organic wasn’t going down so easily.

It threw Bulkhead off his body and into one of the few remaining cars, setting off its alarm. At the loud noise, the green spots along the organics arms and head started pulsing rapidly and the creature brought its hand up to try and shield itself from the noise.

As it was hunched over, Prowl threw his shurikens at the devices on its back. They sparked with green lightning before the organic started shrinking. It wasn’t long before it was human-sized

“Good thinking, Prowl. Way to cut him down to size.” Optimus praised. He looked over at Nightlight who was just….standing there, with her back turned toward the group and looking at the now shrunken organic.

“Nightlight?” Optimus asked. He took a few steps closer, his concern growing. Now that she had stopped moving, he was able to get a good look at her. Shards of glass and metal were sticking out of various points on her frame, but she showed no signs of pain or fatigue.

Optimus placed a careful servo on her shoulder but was shocked by her reaction.

She wiped around fast and sunk her fangs into his servo, snarling. Optimus let out a pained gasp before it quickly turned to one of horror. Her optics were bright purple.

“Get Ratchet, now!” Optimus commanded. Nightlight had let go of his servo but was now trying to escape. He couldn’t let her. If she did, there would be very little chance of finding her for a while.

Nightlight was trying every possible thing to get out of his servos, from clawing to biting to hiss and snarling, but Optimus kept his grip strong.

“Already here, Prime. What’s the matter?” Ratchet said, seeming to appear magically with a healed Bumblebee and two humans in tow.

The small distraction was all Nightlight needed. She squirmed her way out of his grip and started making a break for it.

“Catch her!” he shouted, getting up and running toward her. Prowl jumped and quickly cut off the direction she was going in, but she was quick to turn in the other direction. Bulkhead was closest and grabbed her with his claws, pinning her and effectively trapping her

“Nightlight? What’re you doing!” Bulkhead asked. 

“That’s not Nightlight,” Optimus said, walking over with a solemn look on his face. Nightlight was writhing and snarling at all the bots as they surrounded her. Out of his subspace, he pulled out a small needle-like object.

Nightlight seemed to snarl and hiss louder at the sight of the device, but once Optimus inserted it into her neck, she went limp. Optimus carefully took Nightlight from Bulkhead and cradled her against his chassis.

“Let’s go home,” he said, sounding very exhausted. Bumblebee started to protest, but Optimus lifted a single servo to cut him off. “I’ll explain everything once I’m sure Nightlight is okay. I promise.”

Bumblebee nodded hesitantly, then transformed for the two humans. The group of Autobots left the destroyed parking lot in silence, completely unaware of what was watching them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two things
> 
> 1\. The scene with Nightlight kicking butt, but being kinda weird was originally going to happen with the cockroach/nanite monster, but I moved it  
> 2\. The reason Nightlight survived the car will be explained later, I promise she doesn't have ridiculously strong plot armor


	17. Hospitals

“Well, thanks to Sari’s key, Nightlight’s going to be just fine.” Ratchet said, joining the bots in the main room of the base. Bumblebee had taken the two kids home a while ago, but not before Sari used her key on Nightlight.

“I’ve put her back in her room since there isn’t anything else I can do for her.” he looked at Optimus. “Now, what I want to know is about the sedative you gave her. It was very fast-acting and you seemed to know the exact location of her main energon line. So, explain.”

Optimus let out a sigh. “You remember Nightlight’s explanation for how she got on our ship, right?” The group nodded. “Well, her being…. ”controlled” has happened a few times before. In fact, after the second time it happened, they cut her off socially with the rest of the younglings in the hospital.”

Optimus remembered that day well. Sentinel and Elita were furious, but there wasn’t much they could do. The hospital deemed her a threat to the others.

“After the third time, myself and her two other guardians were given mandatory first aid classes, as well as taught exactly what to do during her…… episodes.”

Ratchet was frowning. “I might regret asking this, but what did she do that was so bad they socially isolated her?” 

“It’ll be easier to  _ show _ you what happened,” Optimus answered, walking over to the newly installed television. Earlier that day, Ratchet had installed an adapter so Cybertronian tech was compatible with the primitive Earth device.

He pulled out a small data slug from his subspace and plugged it into the back. He motioned for the rest of the team to sit on the couch and chairs as the TV turned on. 

The screen was split into four sections, each one showing different locations, probably from security cameras. The upper right showed a long hallway with many doors, while the bottom right showed a room of sorts. There were various toys and datapads around, as well as chairs and desks. One wall was entirely a window, showing a serene garden outside. The bottom left camera showed the entryway of the hospital, with many mechs and femmes going about their business.

But it was the upper left corner that caught everyone’s attention. It was a hospital room, and lying on the bed was Nightlight. She looked smaller in the footage, but that might have just been because of the size of the berth. She was in recharge, partially tucked under a soft-looking blanket. On the side table next to her were a few trinkets, most notably a half-completed puzzle.

The stillness of the room was interrupted by the nurse. She was holding a datapad in one servo and a needle in the other. She was reading the datapad intently before she got to a certain part. She snorted audibly.

“‘Don’t use medical equipment when unconscious. Has been known to react violently.’  _ Puh-lease _ . What’s the worst that’s gonna happen. She’ll bite me?” the femme said aloud.

Ratchet frowned from his seat. 

The nurse walked over to Nightlight and, none too gently it seemed, inserted the needle into Nightlight’s wrist.

The youngling’s optics snapped open with a start and yanked her servo away from the needle. Her wrist started bleeding almost immediately, and the forceful removal of the needle didn’t do her any favors. Coolant started welling up in her optics as she cradled her wrist against her chest.

For a few seconds, Nightlight didn’t move, only looking at the nurse in horror and fear. But then….her optics started flickering. They were rapidly changing from blue to purple, before finally settling on purple.

Her horrified face morphed into one of anger. In mere seconds, Nightlight had stood up on the berth and  _ thrown _ herself at the nurse, claws, and fangs bared.

The nurse screamed in fear and ran to the door, not even bothering to close it behind her. Nightlight sprinted from the room, chasing the nurse down the hallway on the upper right camera.

The two quickly left the view of the camera and weren’t visible for a few seconds, before the screaming nurse bolted into the view of the entryway camera and out the door. Nightlight was close behind, but it seemed the hospital had  _ some _ smart members, as the nurses and doctors in the room created a small barricade, preventing Nightlight from leaving the building. A few security guards came from the other hallways, cutting Nightlight off from escaping.

The small femme snarled, her purple optics narrowing.

When the security guards started taking unified steps forward, all hell broke loose. 

What happened in the next few seconds shocked  _ everyone _ , both in the recording and those watching it. In the span of  _ 10 seconds _ , almost every single nurse, doctor, security guard, and anyone else had scratches, bites, or dents somewhere. Most of the doctors had backed off, choosing to treat the fallen security guards, but Nightlight didn’t move from the center of the room.

“Nightlight…..” one of the doctors came from a different hallway with something hidden behind his back. Nightlight turned around and snarled at him. He was around Ratchet’s build but was a soft gray with white highlights along his shoulders, helm, and peds.

“Nightlight, it’s me. It’s Residue.” The doctor said again. Nightlight kept growling, but instead of attacking him like she did the others, she took a step back. She seemed to…..recognize him.

“Nightlight, I’m not going to hurt you, I promise,” he said, taking another step. But this time, Nightlight didn’t back up. She only glared at him.

“I won’t hurt you, Nightlight. You know that.” he took two steps this time. Nightlight was slowly starting to relax. He took a few more steps. He was now two steps away from Nightlight. He kneeled down to her level and slowly started to reach out to her with his non-hidden servo.

She growled at first to the appendage, but it sounded less like anger and more like wariness. Residue hesitated for a few seconds, before moving his servo again and carefully grabbing her injured servo. Nightlight flinched at the contact but didn’t pull away.

From behind his back, Residue revealed a small roll of bandages. With the practiced ease of an experienced doctor, he carefully wrapped them around the wound, which had mostly stopped bleeding. 

Nightlight's optics started flickering again, only this time slowly. Residue smiled.

“That’s it, Nightlight. Calm down. You’re safe.” Her optics flickered one last time before settling on blue. 

“Res….” she started, but she didn’t get to finish. Her optics quickly shut off and her frame went limp. Residue was quick to catch her before she hit the floor though.

All four of the cameras went black, and Optimus retrieved the data slug.

“So, any questions?”

“What happened to the nurse?” Bumblebee asked.

“I was wondering that myself,” Prowl added.

“Same here, Bossbot,” Bulkhead said. 

“Well, from what I know, she was fired and all the hospitals in the surrounding area were told what happened.” Optimus shrugged. “But, they might just be rumors.”

“Wait, if Residue was able to calm her down, why did you use the needle?” Bulkhead asked. Optimus slightly winced.

“No one else was ever able to calm her down like Residue,” Optimus admitted. That much was true.

He decided not to include the fact that Residue was sadly no longer functioning. He was apparently suffering from a terminal spark disease and offlined a few months after. That was why they were forced to use the sedatives.

“Do you have any copies of her medical records? I wasn’t able to access them when she first stowed away. Though now I might know why.” Ratchet said. 

Optimus nodded. “I’ll forward them to you tonight.” he turned back to the team. “Anything else?”

No one answered, so Optimus decided that was the end of it. “Great. I’ll see you all in the morning.”

The group dispersed, each heading to their own rooms. But before Optimus turned in for the night, he checked in on Nightlight. She was still asleep, with a peaceful expression on her face.

Optimus let out a sigh, before quietly closing the door and heading to his room just next door.

***

The world came back slowly, just like it always did when I woke up. But unlike most times, I was still incredibly tired.

A small warning popped up in my HUD, but it quickly disappeared.

I blinked a few times before I registered a small weight on my chassis. I looked down to see….Bolt.

I smiled. Thank Primus that I left him in my room and didn’t take him to the wrestling match. He would’ve been crushed for sure.

I carefully removed him from my chassis and placed him next to me on the berth. I wrapped one of my servos around him, before drifting off once again.

***

If Cybertronians could breathe, Megatron would have let out a breath. He was able to fool the youngling into thinking that the drone was asleep, but regardless. That was  _ far _ too close.

He needed to find a better way to get into the youngling’s systems. Waiting for her to fall into recharge was too risky. She almost woke up, and she was in a forced recharge. 

The firewalls protecting her systems were remarkable, and far too advanced for the pitiful body he was using. He would fry his only asset trying to infiltrate her. He needed some way to get her…..closer.  _ Without _ alerting the other Autobots. Which would be a difficult task, considering how protective the Prime was.

Perhaps it was time he enlisted….. _ outside _ help.


	18. Hiatus

I'm going to be placing this story on temporary hiatus. I've just been really running dry on plans, and I don't want to force myself to keep writing and suffer from burn out. Nightlight will be returning, but I can't say specifically when.

Edit: okay, sorry that the hiatus is so long, but just as I was getting the feeling to write again, life just came out of no where and stabbed me in the heart. The hiatus might take longer than first thought, so sorry


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